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Twitter’s child porn problem ruined its plans for an OnlyFans competitor

19 points by ramimac 4y ago

danso 4y ago
As the story's headline and main thesis confirm, I cannot think of a large tech company that I'd trust less than Twitter to effectively mitigate the child porn problem, not if Google/Facebook/TikTok/Pornhub continue to struggle with it. It not b/c Twitter Engineering is incompetent, but Twitter just doesn't seem to have nearly the same capacity or resources as its larger/more profitable rivals. So the more alarming thing for me is that Twitter was even considering an official porn product at all. Spaces and Super Followers feel half-baked and underpromoted; Periscope and Vine are long dead. For Twitter to seriously believe it could whip up its own OnlyFans seems like a decision made out of pure desperation than gung-ho innovative spirit. I'm also curious about how Twitter thought through the downsides of having an official porn platform. A big part of Twitter's usefulness is its adoption by brands, celebrities, and government officials and agencies. If porn became a big part of Twitter's brand association and identity -- which it would have to be to be any kind of financial lifeline -- I feel like many mainstream brands and celebrities would just move to Facebook with its more-tightly patrolled "public square"
- jjk166 4y ago
  I have to imagine that if twitter were to launch an onlyfans competitor, it would be under a different brand. Twitter has the infrastructure for maintaining a platform for content creators to distribute to subscribers, if it weren't for the massive increase in liability it would be well positioned to compete. At most, there might be some technical integration to convert twitter followers into paying subscribers, but I think they would do everything in their power to avoid drawing attention to the fact that they would own both platforms. While definitely not the most novel idea, onlyfans has proved that the business model is a cash cow. While twitter's revenues from advertising have been increasing, their operating expenses have been increasing faster. Profit isn't everything, a large user base and growth potential are valuable, but to match the EBITDA/Market Cap ratio of other major social media companies like Meta, they should be bringing in around $3-4 Billion/yr to justify their current valuation. They are no where near that point, and they're moving steadily further away. Adult content might not be the play but they need to do something to reverse the trend.
ggm 4y ago
The last thing twitter needs (and I don't love it) is to morph an OnlyFans channel

19 points by ramimac 4y ago

As the story's headline and main thesis confirm, I cannot think of a large tech company that I'd trust less than Twitter to effectively mitigate the child porn problem, not if Google/Facebook/TikTok/Pornhub continue to struggle with it. It not b/c Twitter Engineering is incompetent, but Twitter just doesn't seem to have nearly the same capacity or resources as its larger/more profitable rivals. So the more alarming thing for me is that Twitter was even considering an official porn product at all. Spaces and Super Followers feel half-baked and underpromoted; Periscope and Vine are long dead. For Twitter to seriously believe it could whip up its own OnlyFans seems like a decision made out of pure desperation than gung-ho innovative spirit. I'm also curious about how Twitter thought through the downsides of having an official porn platform. A big part of Twitter's usefulness is its adoption by brands, celebrities, and government officials and agencies. If porn became a big part of Twitter's brand association and identity -- which it would have to be to be any kind of financial lifeline -- I feel like many mainstream brands and celebrities would just move to Facebook with its more-tightly patrolled "public square"

jjk166 4y ago
I have to imagine that if twitter were to launch an onlyfans competitor, it would be under a different brand. Twitter has the infrastructure for maintaining a platform for content creators to distribute to subscribers, if it weren't for the massive increase in liability it would be well positioned to compete. At most, there might be some technical integration to convert twitter followers into paying subscribers, but I think they would do everything in their power to avoid drawing attention to the fact that they would own both platforms. While definitely not the most novel idea, onlyfans has proved that the business model is a cash cow. While twitter's revenues from advertising have been increasing, their operating expenses have been increasing faster. Profit isn't everything, a large user base and growth potential are valuable, but to match the EBITDA/Market Cap ratio of other major social media companies like Meta, they should be bringing in around $3-4 Billion/yr to justify their current valuation. They are no where near that point, and they're moving steadily further away. Adult content might not be the play but they need to do something to reverse the trend.

ggm 4y ago

The last thing twitter needs (and I don't love it) is to morph an OnlyFans channel