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Just for reference what Musk did is just blocked half the mobile carriers in emerging markets, kneecapping their ability to grow Twitter in those countries whil

Just for reference what Musk did is just blocked half the mobile carriers in emerging markets, kneecapping their ability to grow Twitter in those countries whilst only temporarily tamping down on bots. The bots will be back, the users won't.

blululu 4y ago
Honest question: are low income users viable for an ad supported platform? As it is I think only North American online ads actually make decent money, though perhaps European and Asian ad markets also deliver value close to break even. It is all an investment in the future. The last 15 years have had a belief that more users means more money but this might be thinking that all users are the same when some are much more valuable than others.
- SilverBirch 4y ago
  Meta makes revenues of about $15Bn in US & Canada, $8Bn in the EU and $10Boutside of EU & US/Canada each year. So it's clearly not nothing, and it's not like Twitter can afford to be picky about where it makes money.
  - CamelCaseName 4y ago
    Meta is insanely deep in those countries outside the EU/US/CA though. As in, they are "the" internet for users who get it for free on their mobile plans and everything else costs exorbitant amounts of money. I don't quite think Elon could do that, unless Starlink really takes off I suppose.
  - AmericanChopper 4y ago
    > it's not like Twitter can afford to be picky about where it makes money. Being picky about where you make your money is absolutely essential for most businesses. Every dollar in revenue costs some amount of money to generate, and choosing the right market segments to invest that money in is a foundational part of a business plan.
  - blululu 4y ago
    Revenue is not profit. It costs money to serve content. The EU has a 1.5x population of NA so that means it is only a third the revenue per user. The third segment has 6x population of NA so the revenue per user is only ~8% of a NA user and that population’s revenue stream is probably dominated by Japan, Korea, Australia and wealthy countries. At a certain point it costs more to serve content than ads will pay. Twitter doesn’t have the pockets to run a loss as an investment indefinitely so it needs to be picky about where it spends money.
- blamazon 4y ago
  "Mitchell and Webb - Kill The Poor": https://youtu.be/owI7DOeO_yg https://youtu.be/owI7DOeO_yg
- blitzar 4y ago
  I thought it was a town square for the world? The most important town square for the world.
P5fRxh5kUvp2th 4y ago
If the plan was to do something short term while a better, longer term fix, is put into place, that sounds reasonable.
ollien 4y ago
Do you have a source on this?
- matwood 4y ago
  https://www.platformer.news/p/how-elon-botched-his-war-on-bots https://www.platformer.news/p/how-elon-botched-his-war-on-bo... > The project was part of Elon Musk’s attempt to rid Twitter of spam. But rather than work to remove individual offenders, the company identified mobile networks associated with large spam networks in specific countries, and blocked users who relied on those networks from receiving SMS messages from Twitter, impacting people with two-factor authentication. Then it blocked traffic from those carriers completely. > From 5:35 AM to 6:45 AM PT on Sunday, Twitter shut down access to the primary telecom providers in India and Russia, as well as the second biggest telecom company in Indonesia, Platformer has learned.

blululu 4y ago

Honest question: are low income users viable for an ad supported platform? As it is I think only North American online ads actually make decent money, though perhaps European and Asian ad markets also deliver value close to break even. It is all an investment in the future. The last 15 years have had a belief that more users means more money but this might be thinking that all users are the same when some are much more valuable than others.

SilverBirch 4y ago
Meta makes revenues of about $15Bn in US & Canada, $8Bn in the EU and $10Boutside of EU & US/Canada each year. So it's clearly not nothing, and it's not like Twitter can afford to be picky about where it makes money.
- CamelCaseName 4y ago
  Meta is insanely deep in those countries outside the EU/US/CA though. As in, they are "the" internet for users who get it for free on their mobile plans and everything else costs exorbitant amounts of money. I don't quite think Elon could do that, unless Starlink really takes off I suppose.
- AmericanChopper 4y ago
  > it's not like Twitter can afford to be picky about where it makes money. Being picky about where you make your money is absolutely essential for most businesses. Every dollar in revenue costs some amount of money to generate, and choosing the right market segments to invest that money in is a foundational part of a business plan.
- blululu 4y ago
  Revenue is not profit. It costs money to serve content. The EU has a 1.5x population of NA so that means it is only a third the revenue per user. The third segment has 6x population of NA so the revenue per user is only ~8% of a NA user and that population’s revenue stream is probably dominated by Japan, Korea, Australia and wealthy countries. At a certain point it costs more to serve content than ads will pay. Twitter doesn’t have the pockets to run a loss as an investment indefinitely so it needs to be picky about where it spends money.
blamazon 4y ago
"Mitchell and Webb - Kill The Poor": https://youtu.be/owI7DOeO_yg https://youtu.be/owI7DOeO_yg
blitzar 4y ago
I thought it was a town square for the world? The most important town square for the world.

P5fRxh5kUvp2th 4y ago

If the plan was to do something short term while a better, longer term fix, is put into place, that sounds reasonable.

ollien 4y ago

Do you have a source on this?

matwood 4y ago
https://www.platformer.news/p/how-elon-botched-his-war-on-bots https://www.platformer.news/p/how-elon-botched-his-war-on-bo... > The project was part of Elon Musk’s attempt to rid Twitter of spam. But rather than work to remove individual offenders, the company identified mobile networks associated with large spam networks in specific countries, and blocked users who relied on those networks from receiving SMS messages from Twitter, impacting people with two-factor authentication. Then it blocked traffic from those carriers completely. > From 5:35 AM to 6:45 AM PT on Sunday, Twitter shut down access to the primary telecom providers in India and Russia, as well as the second biggest telecom company in Indonesia, Platformer has learned.