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Jack saying popular things. Truth is they had to or they’d die. Losing control of the client meant they lost the eyeballs and were just the plumbing. There’s no

Jack saying popular things. Truth is they had to or they’d die. Losing control of the client meant they lost the eyeballs and were just the plumbing. There’s no viable business model for them as plumbing. So they killed the API and launched ads. Today 86% of revenue comes from ads. It’s what is keeping a rather unimpressive company alive.

matt_heimer 5y ago
The could have pushed the cost/revenue to users. I'd pay for ad-free & 3rd party client support as a user. Make the only free to use app the official one that shows ads.
- mdoms 5y ago
  There is a gaping chasm between what users say they'll pay for and what they will actually pay for. Especially in social media.
  - sobkas 5y ago
    > There is a gaping chasm between what users say they'll pay for and what they will actually pay for. Especially in social media. More like "I'm paying for it... What have gone so bad in my life that lead me to do it". Most of the social media content is too expensive even if we get it for free.
solarkraft 5y ago
They could've tried making the official apps not suck before killing all others. While I agree that ads are important to their business model, it's not like they couldn't've found an arrangement with third party client makers. As far as I remember they ended up charging multiples for API access of what would be reasonable to refinance with ads. Considering how badly their ads have traditionally performed I have trouble imagining them being any better of for it.
- DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
  > Considering how badly their ads have traditionally performed I pay for Twitter Blue and I still get ads :) Speaking for myself, but the majority of ads I see on Twitter are for the generic big-brands (Kraft, P&G, Mars, Ford, etc): stuff that I instantly mentally filter-out. I don't understand why mainstream American TV and web advertising is just so... simultaneously try-hard (with clearly massive production budgets) but also so awful, insipid messaging that insults the intelligence of those watching/reading. I'll admit I used to watch the Superbowl for the ads, but even those are now mostly unwatchable. ...or am I just getting older? ------------ ...but every so-often, Twitter will show me an uncannily perfect ad that's matched right-up with my interests and beneficial for everyone (I get to learn about a commercial product or service that I can genuinely benefit from, and the advertiser has my attention): but it's never for anything from a mainstream advertiser, it's usually something very niche (like specialty tooling, non-AWS PaaS services, etc). I actually want to see more of these kinds of ads (well, I'd still rather have zero ads considering I also pay for Twitter Blue), but Twitter just won't.
  - dawnerd 5y ago
    I literally only pay for Blue just so I can hide the really annoying spaces button they added in (and conveniently paywalled its removal). I hope the app doesn't keep going down this path or I'll go back to using the web client and some custom scripts to pass notifications to me.
pornel 5y ago
I wish they added ads to the API instead, and required 3rd party clients to display the ads in the similar way as the official one. Other apps weren't used to (just) bypass the ads. They offered unique interfaces that an official lowest-common-denominator app never will. Killing of the API also killed a ton of fun projects that played with the data. These API integrations weren't a threat for the official app. They even were an ad for Twitter itself, showing how much happens on Twitter. Twitter tried to keep this aspect alive, but the butchered API and lost developer goodwill killed off the toy projects too.
- LZ_Khan 5y ago
  How would they require a third party client to display the ad? That sounds like a nightmare in many directions. Enforcement and proper monetization being the first things that come to mind.
  - pornel 5y ago
    From an API perspective it could be "put this code in an <iframe> every X tweets" for basic web-based clients, and/or promoted tweets could be tweets with extra data for tracking. Enforcement can be done with a banhammer — big profitable apps won't risk getting booted over non-compliance, and non-profitable apps are non-profitable and not worth chasing over this.

matt_heimer 5y ago

The could have pushed the cost/revenue to users. I'd pay for ad-free & 3rd party client support as a user. Make the only free to use app the official one that shows ads.

mdoms 5y ago
There is a gaping chasm between what users say they'll pay for and what they will actually pay for. Especially in social media.
- sobkas 5y ago
  > There is a gaping chasm between what users say they'll pay for and what they will actually pay for. Especially in social media. More like "I'm paying for it... What have gone so bad in my life that lead me to do it". Most of the social media content is too expensive even if we get it for free.

solarkraft 5y ago

They could've tried making the official apps not suck before killing all others. While I agree that ads are important to their business model, it's not like they couldn't've found an arrangement with third party client makers. As far as I remember they ended up charging multiples for API access of what would be reasonable to refinance with ads. Considering how badly their ads have traditionally performed I have trouble imagining them being any better of for it.

DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
> Considering how badly their ads have traditionally performed I pay for Twitter Blue and I still get ads :) Speaking for myself, but the majority of ads I see on Twitter are for the generic big-brands (Kraft, P&G, Mars, Ford, etc): stuff that I instantly mentally filter-out. I don't understand why mainstream American TV and web advertising is just so... simultaneously try-hard (with clearly massive production budgets) but also so awful, insipid messaging that insults the intelligence of those watching/reading. I'll admit I used to watch the Superbowl for the ads, but even those are now mostly unwatchable. ...or am I just getting older? ------------ ...but every so-often, Twitter will show me an uncannily perfect ad that's matched right-up with my interests and beneficial for everyone (I get to learn about a commercial product or service that I can genuinely benefit from, and the advertiser has my attention): but it's never for anything from a mainstream advertiser, it's usually something very niche (like specialty tooling, non-AWS PaaS services, etc). I actually want to see more of these kinds of ads (well, I'd still rather have zero ads considering I also pay for Twitter Blue), but Twitter just won't.
- dawnerd 5y ago
  I literally only pay for Blue just so I can hide the really annoying spaces button they added in (and conveniently paywalled its removal). I hope the app doesn't keep going down this path or I'll go back to using the web client and some custom scripts to pass notifications to me.

pornel 5y ago

I wish they added ads to the API instead, and required 3rd party clients to display the ads in the similar way as the official one. Other apps weren't used to (just) bypass the ads. They offered unique interfaces that an official lowest-common-denominator app never will. Killing of the API also killed a ton of fun projects that played with the data. These API integrations weren't a threat for the official app. They even were an ad for Twitter itself, showing how much happens on Twitter. Twitter tried to keep this aspect alive, but the butchered API and lost developer goodwill killed off the toy projects too.

LZ_Khan 5y ago
How would they require a third party client to display the ad? That sounds like a nightmare in many directions. Enforcement and proper monetization being the first things that come to mind.
- pornel 5y ago
  From an API perspective it could be "put this code in an <iframe> every X tweets" for basic web-based clients, and/or promoted tweets could be tweets with extra data for tracking. Enforcement can be done with a banhammer — big profitable apps won't risk getting booted over non-compliance, and non-profitable apps are non-profitable and not worth chasing over this.