3 ms·

That's great but it's fair to say that's niche - both in terms of the number of people I'm guessing who are producing that type of content and the amount of mon

by dotBen 10y ago

That's great but it's fair to say that's niche - both in terms of the number of people I'm guessing who are producing that type of content and the amount of monetization that can occur from that community. As a public company, Twitter has to focus on the mainstream, big numbers. I would also suggest that Twitter refocusing to sports and news would give the specialist apps you mention (and others) a better chance at super-serving your community. Is Twitter's ephemeral nature, mixed in with non-medical updates, really the best way for you to spot trends and identify useful links? If you don't fire up the app every few hours do you risk missing a crucial link or update?

pvg 10y ago
It is niche but works surprisingly well for any field with practitioners who are on twitter. So lots and lots of niches. And you're right that it's awful as a receiving interface. Nor do I have any idea how you turn this into money, or growth or what have you. But it is a thing.
- monknomo 10y ago
  Maybe research tools for long tail targeting content creators? I could see paying for a tool that helped collect, filter and organize what the top people are saying and pain points in general.
- dotBen 10y ago
  "But it is a thing" If you can't turn it into money or growth (which Twitter is failing at right now) it won't be a thing for much longer. Twitter exists primarily as a public company to make money not to provide a service to niche communities.
  - pvg 10y ago
    Twitter exists primarily as a public company to make money Thanks for explaining that to me.
erikpukinskis 10y ago
That's called the "Long Tail"... individual users/customers have a niche interest, but together they form a center of gravity approximately as large as the largest use cases. http://www.thelongtail.com/conceptual.jpg http://www.thelongtail.com/conceptual.jpg You have to think a little differently to design for the long tail. You can't just design one consistent experience, you have to design tools that can be used in many scenarios.
- dotBen 10y ago
  Yes, I'm familiar with the long tail ;) The problem is that Twitter has proven that it's incredibly hard to monetize this kind of content at a level that the public markets demand. The reality is Twitter has failed as a business more than anything and this is about repositioning Twitter as a business that can be monetized.
kristianc 10y ago
> That's great but it's fair to say that's niche - both in terms of the number of people I'm guessing who are producing that type of content and the amount of monetization that can occur from that community. Although it's niche, you could substitute almost anything else for 'medical' and have it work. There's an equally good and thriving literary Twitter, arts Twitter, gay Twitter, black Twitter, politics Twitter, dev Twitter. Turns out that people like their news and sports mixed in with other ephemera anyway - it's a secret that TV networks have known for decades with late night TV and 'and finally' segments on network news. For me the point where Twitter really lost its way is when it decided to focus on being a 'media company' and drawing attention to tweets from 'public figuresrather than finding better ways to enable people to tap into and contribute to communities that matter to them.
- dotBen 10y ago
  I think this is kind of my point, actually... The monetization Twitter has been able to achieve from this niche content hasn't met expectations and that niche content has also seen stalled growth. Ephemera is what makes a sport/news/politics-aligned Twitter a much more interest proposition that routes around the negatives of the product and the value proposition on that front.
roryisok 10y ago
> If you don't fire up the app every few hours do you risk missing a crucial link or update? One thing that's always bugged me about twitter - its so transient. when you log on you only get a snapshot of what's happening at that moment - scrolling back through the days or weeks traffic is next to impossible because of the sheer volume of content. But in this way, the OP of this thread is correct - Live is most definitely where twitter is king.
heymijo 10y ago
Yes, it's a niche but how many niches in a similar vein exist on Twitter? What I heard davycro describe above sounds a lot like the K-12 mathematics community on Twitter dubbed the MathTwitterBlogosphere #MTBoS. It connects everyone from kindergarten teachers in France to university professors and has been a source of tremendous professional development for me over the past four years. Are there enough other communities like us out there to be material to Twitter's business? I don't know, but the #MTBoS derives great value from having Twitter as a gathering place.
orasis 10y ago
The long tail arises from niches in aggregate.

by dotBen 10y ago

pvg 10y ago

It is niche but works surprisingly well for any field with practitioners who are on twitter. So lots and lots of niches. And you're right that it's awful as a receiving interface. Nor do I have any idea how you turn this into money, or growth or what have you. But it is a thing.

monknomo 10y ago
Maybe research tools for long tail targeting content creators? I could see paying for a tool that helped collect, filter and organize what the top people are saying and pain points in general.
dotBen 10y ago
"But it is a thing" If you can't turn it into money or growth (which Twitter is failing at right now) it won't be a thing for much longer. Twitter exists primarily as a public company to make money not to provide a service to niche communities.
- pvg 10y ago
  Twitter exists primarily as a public company to make money Thanks for explaining that to me.

erikpukinskis 10y ago

That's called the "Long Tail"... individual users/customers have a niche interest, but together they form a center of gravity approximately as large as the largest use cases. http://www.thelongtail.com/conceptual.jpg http://www.thelongtail.com/conceptual.jpg You have to think a little differently to design for the long tail. You can't just design one consistent experience, you have to design tools that can be used in many scenarios.

dotBen 10y ago
Yes, I'm familiar with the long tail ;) The problem is that Twitter has proven that it's incredibly hard to monetize this kind of content at a level that the public markets demand. The reality is Twitter has failed as a business more than anything and this is about repositioning Twitter as a business that can be monetized.

kristianc 10y ago

> That's great but it's fair to say that's niche - both in terms of the number of people I'm guessing who are producing that type of content and the amount of monetization that can occur from that community. Although it's niche, you could substitute almost anything else for 'medical' and have it work. There's an equally good and thriving literary Twitter, arts Twitter, gay Twitter, black Twitter, politics Twitter, dev Twitter. Turns out that people like their news and sports mixed in with other ephemera anyway - it's a secret that TV networks have known for decades with late night TV and 'and finally' segments on network news. For me the point where Twitter really lost its way is when it decided to focus on being a 'media company' and drawing attention to tweets from 'public figuresrather than finding better ways to enable people to tap into and contribute to communities that matter to them.

dotBen 10y ago
I think this is kind of my point, actually... The monetization Twitter has been able to achieve from this niche content hasn't met expectations and that niche content has also seen stalled growth. Ephemera is what makes a sport/news/politics-aligned Twitter a much more interest proposition that routes around the negatives of the product and the value proposition on that front.

roryisok 10y ago

> If you don't fire up the app every few hours do you risk missing a crucial link or update? One thing that's always bugged me about twitter - its so transient. when you log on you only get a snapshot of what's happening at that moment - scrolling back through the days or weeks traffic is next to impossible because of the sheer volume of content. But in this way, the OP of this thread is correct - Live is most definitely where twitter is king.

heymijo 10y ago

Yes, it's a niche but how many niches in a similar vein exist on Twitter? What I heard davycro describe above sounds a lot like the K-12 mathematics community on Twitter dubbed the MathTwitterBlogosphere #MTBoS. It connects everyone from kindergarten teachers in France to university professors and has been a source of tremendous professional development for me over the past four years. Are there enough other communities like us out there to be material to Twitter's business? I don't know, but the #MTBoS derives great value from having Twitter as a gathering place.

orasis 10y ago

The long tail arises from niches in aggregate.