6 ms·

"Excellent acquisition. Twitter will definitely compete and take marketshare from Substack" did not age well.

spaceman_2020 4y ago
I tried launching an ad campaign on Twitter on their self-serve ads platform. On the very first screen, I'm asked to select my country and time zone. Except the time zone selector only has +1 hour increments. You can choose UTC+5 or UTC+6, but you can't choose UTC+5:30 (which is my time zone). So I had to choose UTC+5. This multibillion dollar corporation was running a multibillion ad platform where customers couldn't even choose their correct time zone. No wonder they couldn't make any money, even during the pandemic.
- jefftk 4y ago
  This isn't even that weird an edge case: ~1.5B people are in UTC+5:30.
  - Raed667 4y ago
    [flagged]
    - nemothekid 4y ago
      Their previous CEO was one of the 1.5B
      - mattl 4y ago
        Who?
        jefftk 4y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parag_Agrawal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parag_Agrawal
        mattl 4y ago
        I assumed he was in San Francisco
        jefftk 4y ago
        I think nemothekid was saying the CEO used to live in that time zone, not that he did while CEO of Twitter.
        mattl 4y ago
        Ahh, that makes more sense.
    - spaceman_2020 4y ago
      UTC+5:30 is India Twitter likely has more than a few Indian engineers. And Twitter’s many tech customers likely have more than a few Indians as well. Really not an edge case at all.
benatkin 4y ago
It's like saying "Thanks to the work of (nonprofit) there will be at least a 5% increase in the number of comfortable affordable housing units in New Orleans by the end of the year" before Hurricane Katrina.
- bee_rider 4y ago
  So wait is Musk Katrina in that case?
  - benatkin 4y ago
    As far as making life as normal impossible goes, kinda. As far as damage goes, I think Musk might still be good for Twitter, maybe even for Revue in the long term.
rippercushions 4y ago
Comment #2, on the other hand, nailed it: prestigious on Jan 26, 2021 | prev | next [–] You would have to be a complete idiot to try and build your revenue on something owned by Twitter. They will shut you down at any time, for any reason, with no recourse.
- b112 4y ago
  They will shut you down at any time, for any reason, with no recourse. True, but this also sounds like Google, or Youtube, or Facebook, or Apple, or the Play Store, or payment processors, or github, or...
  - user_7832 4y ago
    I mean that’s not wrong, it just speaks poorly of these tech giants in general. For example dark sky was recently shut down, after being acquired by Apple.
trynewideas 4y ago
Same comment, though: > Twitter could absolutely become a paid service and move away from ads as its business model. ... Imagine paying $1-3 per month for FB or Twitter. We'd no longer be the product — our data not for sale — and the companies would make more money! or > It's almost a running joke, up there with Daft Punk playing at the trash fence, that Twitter just won't release an edit button. With a move towards paying subscribers, maybe Twitter will listen to its real customers -- content writers -- rather than advertisers. Monkey's paw and all that, but not bad otherwise.

spaceman_2020 4y ago

I tried launching an ad campaign on Twitter on their self-serve ads platform. On the very first screen, I'm asked to select my country and time zone. Except the time zone selector only has +1 hour increments. You can choose UTC+5 or UTC+6, but you can't choose UTC+5:30 (which is my time zone). So I had to choose UTC+5. This multibillion dollar corporation was running a multibillion ad platform where customers couldn't even choose their correct time zone. No wonder they couldn't make any money, even during the pandemic.

jefftk 4y ago
This isn't even that weird an edge case: ~1.5B people are in UTC+5:30.
- Raed667 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - nemothekid 4y ago
    Their previous CEO was one of the 1.5B
    - mattl 4y ago
      Who?
      - jefftk 4y ago
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parag_Agrawal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parag_Agrawal
        mattl 4y ago
        I assumed he was in San Francisco
        jefftk 4y ago
        I think nemothekid was saying the CEO used to live in that time zone, not that he did while CEO of Twitter.
        mattl 4y ago
        Ahh, that makes more sense.
  - spaceman_2020 4y ago
    UTC+5:30 is India Twitter likely has more than a few Indian engineers. And Twitter’s many tech customers likely have more than a few Indians as well. Really not an edge case at all.

benatkin 4y ago

It's like saying "Thanks to the work of (nonprofit) there will be at least a 5% increase in the number of comfortable affordable housing units in New Orleans by the end of the year" before Hurricane Katrina.

bee_rider 4y ago
So wait is Musk Katrina in that case?
- benatkin 4y ago
  As far as making life as normal impossible goes, kinda. As far as damage goes, I think Musk might still be good for Twitter, maybe even for Revue in the long term.

rippercushions 4y ago

Comment #2, on the other hand, nailed it: prestigious on Jan 26, 2021 | prev | next [–] You would have to be a complete idiot to try and build your revenue on something owned by Twitter. They will shut you down at any time, for any reason, with no recourse.

b112 4y ago
They will shut you down at any time, for any reason, with no recourse. True, but this also sounds like Google, or Youtube, or Facebook, or Apple, or the Play Store, or payment processors, or github, or...
- user_7832 4y ago
  I mean that’s not wrong, it just speaks poorly of these tech giants in general. For example dark sky was recently shut down, after being acquired by Apple.

trynewideas 4y ago

Same comment, though: > Twitter could absolutely become a paid service and move away from ads as its business model. ... Imagine paying $1-3 per month for FB or Twitter. We'd no longer be the product — our data not for sale — and the companies would make more money! or > It's almost a running joke, up there with Daft Punk playing at the trash fence, that Twitter just won't release an edit button. With a move towards paying subscribers, maybe Twitter will listen to its real customers -- content writers -- rather than advertisers. Monkey's paw and all that, but not bad otherwise.