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Twitter made a clear choice many years ago to move away from realizing the potential of their platform as an ubiquitous message-delivery system. Before everyon

Twitter made a clear choice many years ago to move away from realizing the potential of their platform as an ubiquitous message-delivery system. Before everyone had a smart phone, I built a site ("app" in today's terminology) that relied on the Twitter SMS API. It was amazing to have the ability to interact with my backend on-the-go. After a couple years, Twitter stopped supporting, then shuttered SMS. That was the first step in directing the platform away from its potential as a utility service, and toward a marketing platform. It's just sad that the technology had so much potential and is now just a corporate wasteland of noise.

yoz-y 8y ago
I think that app.net is an example showing that such a platform does not have a viable business model. Granted, it is a very small sample size.
- classichasclass 8y ago
  App.net also made some mistakes (speaking as a subscriber). The biggest mistake it made was going freemium because it enabled a whole lot of post-only accounts that didn't have an investment in the platform. Limiting following didn't make a whole heck of a lot of difference for accounts that just wanted to make noise. The social network I use is private and invite-only, and I make small regular financial contributions to it, which means I care about its health and the community. It's the only one I use.
- Grue3 8y ago
  App.net did not have a sufficient user base to make it work. Actually getting users on your platform is the hardest part. And it's something that Twitter has already done.