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Twitter is Like the Weather

Started by manalang · 9 months ago

Warning: This post is about Twitter, so if you don’t care about Twitter, stop reading here. Proceed at your own risk of boredom.
Last week, friends of the ‘Lab David Haimes and Michael Krigsman were exchanging some jabs over Twitter, about Twitter. Michael argues ... Continue reading »

14 comments

  • davidhaimes

    1 year ago

    A lot of people send and receive tweets via SMS, so I wonder if they could get some share of the revenue from that and with some tight integration into the mobile provider phonesvand services they could accelerate adoption too. In the UK where local phone calls are not free, many dial up ISP would offer a free service andmake money taking a share of the phone revenue.

    If anyone at Twitter reads this and haven't thought of it yet thought of it - contact me to work out how much you're going to pay me for the idea.
    reply
  • mkrigsman

    1 year ago

    Sure, David has a point that Twitter needs a business model. But, that's not what it needs today. With $20M in funding, Twitter has all the funding it requires for the foreseeable short-term future. Right now the company needs to manage it's infrastructure with the goal of utility-level reliability. If they don't accomplish this, Twitter will die.

    Note to David: Dead companies don't need a business model.

    Michael Krigsman
    http://twitter.com/mkrigsman
    reply
  • davidhaimes

    1 year ago

    Notes to Michael:
    1) Dead companies don't need to manage infrastructure.
    2) $20m does not go far, especially when trying get 3 or more 9s availability.
    3) Many companies who manged infrastructure well are dead, due to a lack of business mode, webvan for example.

    David
    http:/twitter.com/dhaimes
    reply
  • Jake

    1 year ago

    Agreed, Twitter has many possible business models from which to choose. It would be a hoot if they crowdsourced it too. That would ensure a palatable model that would appeal to the majority of users.
    reply
  • Andy C

    1 year ago

    Twitter has a large, loyal and passionate user base. People can't see a micro-blogging world where Twitter isn't dominant. But then again, years ago, I couldn't see a search engine coming along to displace AltaVista.

    [Jaiku launched 6 months before Twitter so it's slightly unfair to label them as a Twitter 'clone'.]
    reply
  • Jake

    1 year ago

    Passionate being the keyword. Power balance in the Intertubes does shift, remember Excite?

    Regarding history, Jaiku formed a company in 2/06 and launched its service in 8/06 in beta. It left beta in 3/07. Twitter started within Obvious in 3/06 and launched its service in 10/06. Some would argue it's still in beta :)

    Their history is pretty closely tied, but even a year ago, Jaiku was seen as a clone. So, I guess perception is reality.
    reply
  • Andy C

    1 year ago

    They both beat gMail which is still in beta :-)

    2008/6/6 Disqus <>:
    reply
  • Andy C

    1 year ago

    Jake - thanks for the update (and link). Interesting.
    reply
  • Jake

    1 year ago

    I find it interesting that two companies in different parts of the world were moving in exactly the same direction concurrently.

    Too bad we can't see an architecture bake-off between the two. From a user's view, they seem very similar, but somehow I think the architecture is very different.

    I suspect Google is watching Twitter's very public travails with interest. I expect them to integrate Jaiku soon b/c let's face it Google/Jaiku can bring micro-blogging to a larger user base that doesn't know about Twitter.
    reply
  • S. Venkataramanan

    1 year ago

    Will you use Google Search if you were ask to pay for it? Twitter is popular because its free. They should look at attracting more customers now and increasing reliability. With the current image, building a business model over something that is unreliable would be difficult or rather impossible.
    reply
  • Jake

    1 year ago

    Hard to attract new users in the face of shoddy reliability, as Michael says, but most of us are hooked and willing to ride out the dark times.

    Paying for a service isn't the only business model online; in fact, it's probably the least common, due to the free nature of the Intertubes and the fact that there are plenty of clones.

    Twitter is not only popular because it is free; the service and network make it valuable to users. Pownce and Jaiku are also free, but they are not nearly as popular asTwitter. Lots of new, free services launch every month, but they're not all popular just b/c they're free. Free is expected.
    reply
  • Jake

    1 year ago

    I still say this whole debate is chicken/egg. What's the point in achieving ironclad reliability if people are willing to forgive Twitter? It's become a joke among users, and I've still not seen an exodus. Have you?

    On the positive side, maybe the flakiness means people are less likely to base their own businesses on Twitter, which is a good thing, since Twitter is a free service. So, what's wrong with "good enough" reliability?

    I hope the VCs who ponied up the most recent round kicked the business model tires too.
    reply
  • davidhaimes

    1 year ago

    Jake,

    You would assume the VCs who kicked in some cash have some idea how to make money out of this longer term. However I have seen VC money thrown at some crazy stuff with no chance of ever making money. Hindsight is always 20/20 ;)
    reply
  • Jake

    1 year ago

    I do find it funny (and possibly smart) that Twitter dialed down expectations and some features in advance of Apple WWDC. Reminds me of that old SNL skit for the dating service called "Lowered Expectations".

    Ah, Twitter. Sigh.
    reply

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