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I suspect the lack of management focus is causing all of the waste. All of this investment in video, the various API services Twitter created and then discontin

I suspect the lack of management focus is causing all of the waste. All of this investment in video, the various API services Twitter created and then discontinued, working on various Scala frameworks, probably a lot of internal data analysis tools, tweaks to the timeline format that nobody seemed to want... I just don't think a lot of what Twitter is doing is necessary to running a core business. The problem is that they don't have a core business -- they have several factions pushing competing visions of a core business and none of them can gain the upper hand. They need to decide what their core business is and focus on it. If you look at their list of active users, it's really something a lot of companies would kill for: almost every major politician, journalist, and celebrity in the US, and a similar presence in several other countries. It's just amazing that they can't figure out how to make a profit serving that kind of user base. I should add that aside from the exceptional success of Steve Jobs at Apple, bringing a founder back to run the company is not a very good sign.

maxerickson 10y ago
It wouldn't be surprising if the timeline stuff comes down to measured engagement going up while a modest number of vocal users make noise about change being bad.
calinet6 10y ago
I think that their focus has been on the experience for advertisers, which are less visible or feel negative to the end user (such as tweaks to the timeline—100% for advertisers and brands). However, those choices are probably highly influential to their revenue, and arguably they need to be working more on those things—which means even fewer visible changes that benefit end users. Either they're working on the wrong thing, or they're not working hard enough on the right thing. I don't see too much of a split focus—they know the base they have and they need to extract value while keeping the essence of the experience they have.
eldavido 10y ago
Interesting how this is an example of "societies crumble when their elites want to go in different directions". I agree that lack of focus is a big problem and wonder what those competing 2-3 visions are. I think Jack came back because he/the investors thought he was the only person with the political clout, or moral authority, to whip people into line behind him, and get the company moving in one direction

maxerickson 10y ago

It wouldn't be surprising if the timeline stuff comes down to measured engagement going up while a modest number of vocal users make noise about change being bad.

calinet6 10y ago

I think that their focus has been on the experience for advertisers, which are less visible or feel negative to the end user (such as tweaks to the timeline—100% for advertisers and brands). However, those choices are probably highly influential to their revenue, and arguably they need to be working more on those things—which means even fewer visible changes that benefit end users. Either they're working on the wrong thing, or they're not working hard enough on the right thing. I don't see too much of a split focus—they know the base they have and they need to extract value while keeping the essence of the experience they have.

eldavido 10y ago

Interesting how this is an example of "societies crumble when their elites want to go in different directions". I agree that lack of focus is a big problem and wonder what those competing 2-3 visions are. I think Jack came back because he/the investors thought he was the only person with the political clout, or moral authority, to whip people into line behind him, and get the company moving in one direction