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However, if Twitter offers a rev-share with the 3rd party clients, then they will be less likely to filter them out and also be able to make some money for thei

However, if Twitter offers a rev-share with the 3rd party clients, then they will be less likely to filter them out and also be able to make some money for their work. I run a semi-popular twitter tool site and am hoping for this option.

evgen 17y ago
The problem with this line of reasoning is that clients which refuse to whore for twitter will gan users at the expense of other clients. Twitter will also have to offer better ad terms than those clients could get on their own. Twitter controls the interface from their own web client, but has very little leverage over the other clients unless they try to enforce compliance by limiting access and that strategy has a huge risk (mostly downside for Twitter) if they attempt it.
- gfodor 17y ago
  I'm pretty sure the invisible hand will cause this to not happen. Anybody who makes an open source twitter client that doesn't suck will always wonder "What would happen if I made a premium version that had ads?" The net result will be that there will be many free crappy Twitter clients, and a few polished paid/ad sponsored clients.
  - evgen 17y ago
    I was not necessarily saying the clients would be open-source or free, just that it was not necessarily in the interests of the client developers to pass along the ads. I use a paid twitter client on my iPhone and if they pass along ads I will bolt for one that does not do so -- I paid the app developer to serve my interests and not the interests of twitter management. For the developers of paid clients I can't think of a single reason they would go along with twitter on this issue and a lot of reasons why they would make more money (by gaining users) if they filtered the ads. In fact, for the iPhone I can see "get rid of these #$&* ads" being one of the most popular in-app upsells for free twitter clients.
axod 17y ago
Why would you rather get a rev-share with twitter for ads, when you can just put your own ads up and get 100% share of them?
- jazzychad 17y ago
  Because I'm not in the ad sales business. AdWords ads are exceptionally horrible for twitter-type sites where everything is rendered client-side, and if Twitter can give me ads that make me money then I'm for it.

evgen 17y ago

The problem with this line of reasoning is that clients which refuse to whore for twitter will gan users at the expense of other clients. Twitter will also have to offer better ad terms than those clients could get on their own. Twitter controls the interface from their own web client, but has very little leverage over the other clients unless they try to enforce compliance by limiting access and that strategy has a huge risk (mostly downside for Twitter) if they attempt it.

gfodor 17y ago
I'm pretty sure the invisible hand will cause this to not happen. Anybody who makes an open source twitter client that doesn't suck will always wonder "What would happen if I made a premium version that had ads?" The net result will be that there will be many free crappy Twitter clients, and a few polished paid/ad sponsored clients.
- evgen 17y ago
  I was not necessarily saying the clients would be open-source or free, just that it was not necessarily in the interests of the client developers to pass along the ads. I use a paid twitter client on my iPhone and if they pass along ads I will bolt for one that does not do so -- I paid the app developer to serve my interests and not the interests of twitter management. For the developers of paid clients I can't think of a single reason they would go along with twitter on this issue and a lot of reasons why they would make more money (by gaining users) if they filtered the ads. In fact, for the iPhone I can see "get rid of these #$&* ads" being one of the most popular in-app upsells for free twitter clients.

axod 17y ago

Why would you rather get a rev-share with twitter for ads, when you can just put your own ads up and get 100% share of them?

jazzychad 17y ago
Because I'm not in the ad sales business. AdWords ads are exceptionally horrible for twitter-type sites where everything is rendered client-side, and if Twitter can give me ads that make me money then I'm for it.