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Google buying Twitter predicted to follow Microsoft’s move for LinkedIn

19 points by obi1kenobi 10y ago

Olscore 10y ago
If this were to actually happen I would consider it bad news for independent journalism and dangerous for some political viewpoints, even in the United States. Google already owns one of the largest social media platforms: YouTube. Both Twitter and YouTube have pretty large political significance and being owned by the same company could be an issue. Especially as we have seen some persons lose their verification badges (on both YouTube and Twitter) for allegedly being on the wrong side of the political spectrum. The idea of this makes me uneasy.
- deciplex 10y ago
  I agree with you in principle however as far as I can tell people are being banned for what is essentially hate speech, i.e. speech that incites to violence. That is not the same as banning for political views - Google and Twitter are under no obligation, not even an ethical obligation, to allow that stuff on their sites.
  - kanwisher 10y ago
    Hate speech can be very subjective. Like disagreeing with a common view point. If one company can control what is politically correct. There will be less freedom
    - deciplex 10y ago
      Mere "political incorrectness" does not rise to anywhere near the level of actual hate speech. It's the difference between advocating against abortion or even protesting abortion clinics, and actually calling for the assassination of abortion doctors.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
niftich 10y ago
If Google were to buy Twitter, they wouldn't do it because they want Twitter's content or community, they'd do it to merge Twitter's single-digit display ad share with theirs and defensively eliminate a future competitor. I feel they have no more interest in Twitter than does Facebook. Twitter acquired Crashlytics, and they released Fabric.io as a "Twitter Inside" SDK to entice app developers to Twitter integration and its MoPub ad network. This is their big push to beat out Facebook and live inside every app, but Google already plays this game, and Twitter isn't yet a huge threat to them. Either Google or Facebook could buy them defensively, but they need not at this time. (I feel that Microsoft's purchase of LinkedIn was also defensive, but that's a different story.) Verizon, on the other hand, could buy Twitter. They bought AOL to enter the content creation market, and they could cement their share. Or more likely, they could instead buy Yahoo, and with it Tumblr, on the cheap. Amazon could buy Twitter. They bought Twitch, and they could use Twitter to expand their social presence, logged-in time, and display ad share. Yandex could buy Twitter. They would break into the US and Japanese market in a huge way. The Fabric.io SDK would be a perfect fit to drive more engagement from apps to their properties.
sidcool 10y ago
This is something I believe Google should have done way before. They need an external hand to make a footprint in social media and Twitter might be the perfect bet.
- romanovcode 10y ago
  I don't think it would be possible before since Twitter thought that it will be super-profitable. Only now they realised that they have no real model for making actual money. It's the perfect time to buy.

19 points by obi1kenobi 10y ago

If this were to actually happen I would consider it bad news for independent journalism and dangerous for some political viewpoints, even in the United States. Google already owns one of the largest social media platforms: YouTube. Both Twitter and YouTube have pretty large political significance and being owned by the same company could be an issue. Especially as we have seen some persons lose their verification badges (on both YouTube and Twitter) for allegedly being on the wrong side of the political spectrum. The idea of this makes me uneasy.

deciplex 10y ago
I agree with you in principle however as far as I can tell people are being banned for what is essentially hate speech, i.e. speech that incites to violence. That is not the same as banning for political views - Google and Twitter are under no obligation, not even an ethical obligation, to allow that stuff on their sites.
- kanwisher 10y ago
  Hate speech can be very subjective. Like disagreeing with a common view point. If one company can control what is politically correct. There will be less freedom
  - deciplex 10y ago
    Mere "political incorrectness" does not rise to anywhere near the level of actual hate speech. It's the difference between advocating against abortion or even protesting abortion clinics, and actually calling for the assassination of abortion doctors.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

niftich 10y ago

If Google were to buy Twitter, they wouldn't do it because they want Twitter's content or community, they'd do it to merge Twitter's single-digit display ad share with theirs and defensively eliminate a future competitor. I feel they have no more interest in Twitter than does Facebook. Twitter acquired Crashlytics, and they released Fabric.io as a "Twitter Inside" SDK to entice app developers to Twitter integration and its MoPub ad network. This is their big push to beat out Facebook and live inside every app, but Google already plays this game, and Twitter isn't yet a huge threat to them. Either Google or Facebook could buy them defensively, but they need not at this time. (I feel that Microsoft's purchase of LinkedIn was also defensive, but that's a different story.) Verizon, on the other hand, could buy Twitter. They bought AOL to enter the content creation market, and they could cement their share. Or more likely, they could instead buy Yahoo, and with it Tumblr, on the cheap. Amazon could buy Twitter. They bought Twitch, and they could use Twitter to expand their social presence, logged-in time, and display ad share. Yandex could buy Twitter. They would break into the US and Japanese market in a huge way. The Fabric.io SDK would be a perfect fit to drive more engagement from apps to their properties.

sidcool 10y ago

This is something I believe Google should have done way before. They need an external hand to make a footprint in social media and Twitter might be the perfect bet.

romanovcode 10y ago
I don't think it would be possible before since Twitter thought that it will be super-profitable. Only now they realised that they have no real model for making actual money. It's the perfect time to buy.