4 ms·

The Future of Twitter: Q&A with Jack Dorsey

49 points by bko 11y ago

iambateman 11y ago
I remember when Twitter first started and there were tons of interesting people talking to each other. I got freelance jobs through Twitter and internships and friends. One time I told my parents I was going to meet my company who I had been working for for 4 months while only knowing the people through Twitter. They were concerned. But today, it seems like most everyone who follows me is a brand of some kind. Twitter is still, imho, the greatest social network. But it could be so much better.
- bliti 11y ago
  You nailed a pretty important point. It's now about branding, personal or not. Which really stinks because I used to love bouncing one liners with random people a while back. Twitter allowed you to poke somebody in a friendly way and get a similar response. Now it's just about brandind.
ihuman 11y ago
Jack Dorsey did not mention anything about an API, developers, or the phrase "3rd-party." I'm disappointed, but not surprised.
- samp615 11y ago
  He prolly didn't wanna bore people.
- wslh 11y ago
  Happily Prashant, Developer Relations at Twitter, answered all the questions a few days ago in HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11298688 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11298688 (irony)
cpr 11y ago
They didn't ask him about censorship. He most definitely lied about it when interviewed on the Today show. Too many libertarian/conservative voices being un-verified, etc.
- Rusky 11y ago
  And removing a blue checkmark next to someone's username is censorship... how?
  - Grue3 11y ago
    What about removing trending hashtags like #WhichHillary?
jacquesm 11y ago
It's frustrating, because it is the only social network that I'm using but I don't actually think twitter has much of a future at all in the longer term. If they levied a $1 charge on tweets by people with more than 1K followers I'm sure that would go a long way towards making ends meet. On top of that open up the firehose and the api and it might just fly. But with the current six-different-directions-at-once strategy I don't see it going anywhere at all.
mgo 11y ago
No question about censorship on the platform. Extremely disappointing. Twitter is being wielded as a political censorship weapon.
- dogecoinbase 11y ago
  What, your inalienable right to be provided with a platform by a private company is being infringed?
  - TrevorJ 11y ago
    That's a fair point, they are under no legal obligation to provide a platform for free speech. That doesn't mean it isn't a valid thing to desire from your social media service of choice.
    - mgo 11y ago
      Correct. Facebook censors certain topics, but at least they're honest about it. Twitter claims it isn't happening at all, which is a clear lie.
      - wturner 11y ago
        I haven't read Facebook or Twitters complete terms of service but I'm sure they allow for censorship. So as long as users agree to the TOS then it doesn't matter what words come out of the founders mouths. They simply leverage hypocrisy to their advantage with no shame.
AndrewKemendo 11y ago
I guess I don't understand why Twitter is considered in decline. More simply put, what exactly were people expecting from Twitter that it hasn't achieved? They have: - 100+ Million daily active users - 1.3 Billion registered users - Growing revenue: 710M Q4 2015 (+230M YTD) - //EDIT:$11B Market Cap (-3B/21% since IPO) - Active and engaged community What am I missing here? [1]http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/march-2013-by-the-numbers-a-few-amazing-twitter-stats/ http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/march-2013-by-the-num... [2] http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/10/twitters-user-growth-goes-nowhere-as-it-meets-revenue-expectations-of-710m/ http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/10/twitters-user-growth-goes-n... [3] https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:TWTR https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:TWTR //EDIT: I read the graph incorrectly from their IPO document. In that case it makes more sense that people would be worried
- jperras 11y ago
  To start, perhaps a positive earnings per share? http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/twtr/revenue-eps http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/twtr/revenue-eps
  - AndrewKemendo 11y ago
    Ok, that's a start, but it's clearly trending better YOY. With their revenue growth, that would seem to match other high growth companies. As an example TSLA EPS is abysmal in comparison and worsening based on actual reporting - yet nobody is calling their death or wringing hands. So it's gotta be something else. [1]http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/tsla/eps-forecast http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/tsla/eps-forecast
    - erikpukinskis 11y ago
      > As an example TSLA ... nobody is calling their death or wringing hands. No way... lots of people talk about how Tesla's earnings are a problem and people regularly prophesy their death: https://www.google.com/search?q=tesla+earnings+overvalued https://www.google.com/search?q=tesla+earnings+overvalued Tesla is a classic gamble right now. Their market cap is unjustifiable at their current scale. If they can continue their growth curve the bulls will make money. If they don't, the bears will.

49 points by bko 11y ago

I remember when Twitter first started and there were tons of interesting people talking to each other. I got freelance jobs through Twitter and internships and friends. One time I told my parents I was going to meet my company who I had been working for for 4 months while only knowing the people through Twitter. They were concerned. But today, it seems like most everyone who follows me is a brand of some kind. Twitter is still, imho, the greatest social network. But it could be so much better.

bliti 11y ago
You nailed a pretty important point. It's now about branding, personal or not. Which really stinks because I used to love bouncing one liners with random people a while back. Twitter allowed you to poke somebody in a friendly way and get a similar response. Now it's just about brandind.

ihuman 11y ago

Jack Dorsey did not mention anything about an API, developers, or the phrase "3rd-party." I'm disappointed, but not surprised.

samp615 11y ago
He prolly didn't wanna bore people.
wslh 11y ago
Happily Prashant, Developer Relations at Twitter, answered all the questions a few days ago in HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11298688 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11298688 (irony)

cpr 11y ago

They didn't ask him about censorship. He most definitely lied about it when interviewed on the Today show. Too many libertarian/conservative voices being un-verified, etc.

Rusky 11y ago
And removing a blue checkmark next to someone's username is censorship... how?
- Grue3 11y ago
  What about removing trending hashtags like #WhichHillary?

jacquesm 11y ago

It's frustrating, because it is the only social network that I'm using but I don't actually think twitter has much of a future at all in the longer term. If they levied a $1 charge on tweets by people with more than 1K followers I'm sure that would go a long way towards making ends meet. On top of that open up the firehose and the api and it might just fly. But with the current six-different-directions-at-once strategy I don't see it going anywhere at all.

mgo 11y ago

No question about censorship on the platform. Extremely disappointing. Twitter is being wielded as a political censorship weapon.

dogecoinbase 11y ago
What, your inalienable right to be provided with a platform by a private company is being infringed?
- TrevorJ 11y ago
  That's a fair point, they are under no legal obligation to provide a platform for free speech. That doesn't mean it isn't a valid thing to desire from your social media service of choice.
  - mgo 11y ago
    Correct. Facebook censors certain topics, but at least they're honest about it. Twitter claims it isn't happening at all, which is a clear lie.
    - wturner 11y ago
      I haven't read Facebook or Twitters complete terms of service but I'm sure they allow for censorship. So as long as users agree to the TOS then it doesn't matter what words come out of the founders mouths. They simply leverage hypocrisy to their advantage with no shame.

AndrewKemendo 11y ago

I guess I don't understand why Twitter is considered in decline. More simply put, what exactly were people expecting from Twitter that it hasn't achieved? They have: - 100+ Million daily active users - 1.3 Billion registered users - Growing revenue: 710M Q4 2015 (+230M YTD) - //EDIT:$11B Market Cap (-3B/21% since IPO) - Active and engaged community What am I missing here? [1]http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/march-2013-by-the-numbers-a-few-amazing-twitter-stats/ http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/march-2013-by-the-num... [2] http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/10/twitters-user-growth-goes-nowhere-as-it-meets-revenue-expectations-of-710m/ http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/10/twitters-user-growth-goes-n... [3] https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:TWTR https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:TWTR //EDIT: I read the graph incorrectly from their IPO document. In that case it makes more sense that people would be worried

jperras 11y ago
To start, perhaps a positive earnings per share? http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/twtr/revenue-eps http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/twtr/revenue-eps
- AndrewKemendo 11y ago
  Ok, that's a start, but it's clearly trending better YOY. With their revenue growth, that would seem to match other high growth companies. As an example TSLA EPS is abysmal in comparison and worsening based on actual reporting - yet nobody is calling their death or wringing hands. So it's gotta be something else. [1]http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/tsla/eps-forecast http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/tsla/eps-forecast
  - erikpukinskis 11y ago
    > As an example TSLA ... nobody is calling their death or wringing hands. No way... lots of people talk about how Tesla's earnings are a problem and people regularly prophesy their death: https://www.google.com/search?q=tesla+earnings+overvalued https://www.google.com/search?q=tesla+earnings+overvalued Tesla is a classic gamble right now. Their market cap is unjustifiable at their current scale. If they can continue their growth curve the bulls will make money. If they don't, the bears will.