5 ms·

Elon is trying to turn Twitter/X into the wests WeChat. So at least he’s doing something interesting? I’m back in the Elon corner. Is he goes down, it’ll be do

Elon is trying to turn Twitter/X into the wests WeChat. So at least he’s doing something interesting? I’m back in the Elon corner. Is he goes down, it’ll be doing something interesting at least. Meta might have a head start with WhatsApp, but I don’t see them doing anything interesting or well.

fassssst 3y ago
But the west already has iOS and Android. A super app is just a wannabe OS.
- valianteffort 3y ago
  Google and Apple don't offer social media, the former has a video/streaming platform but doesn't seem concerned about losing it's dominant position.
  - fassssst 3y ago
    Group messaging is social media.
- wizofaus 3y ago
  A super app presumably has a dedicated product manager with some sort of vision and control of what goes into what features are available. You could hardly say the same of iOS+AppStore or Android+Playstore. Note that I'm not the least bit convinced we would benefit from a super app, but WeChat seems to fill a need for however many millions of users it has.
  - pohl 3y ago
    Could you elaborate on that? It sounds like you’re saying that Google and Apple have no product management and they’re just shipping random features every year, but that sounds bonkers so I must be misunderstanding.
    - wizofaus 3y ago
      Er, no, I specifically said iOS plus AppStore and Android plus PlayStore, as it's from there that users get the functionality that's not part of the core-OS, and even allowing for the apps Apple & Google publish themselves I don't believe there's any one product manager that decides what features the full set of such apps should offer.
pdntspa 3y ago
Why does chat need to be 'interesting'?
- 2muchcoffeeman 3y ago
  That’s besides the point. Elon overpaid for a shitty social media company. So understandably he’s trying to make the money back. He’s not going to make it back just being another banal social media company. Nothing has to be anything and I feel like I got down voted because people hate Elon now. I’m not asking you to like him. I’m only saying he’s going to try and create something and maybe it’s good.
  - wwtrv 3y ago
    > shitty social media company How was it more shitty than what it is now or what Musk is trying to turn it into? At least it had a quite decent logo instead of as generic as it get X character. > interesting Also what so 'interesting' (in a non crazy/entertaining way) about what Musk is doing?
    - 2muchcoffeeman 3y ago
      What was good about Twitter before? Limited message size. Couldn't edit posts. Impossible to discuss anything with any nuance or civility. Full of echo chambers. Why was it better? Because they kicked off people you didn't like, and whose content you probably didn't follow anyway? >At least it had a quite decent logo instead of as generic as it get X character. It's just a logo. Companies come and go. Everyone needs to get over it. Trying to duplicate WeChat is an objectively interesting strategy. At the very least, by integrating payments your social media platform doesn't have have to sell ads. You could buy items directly off a merchants Twitter/X page and Twitter/X can just take a merchant fee. You could have a market place with integrated payment methods rather than posting on Facebook and working out an intermediate payment method on the side.
      - wwtrv 3y ago
        > What was good about Twitter before oh.. I never personally liked Twitter. I was just thinking about the company itself rather than their products. > It's just a logo It also objectively sucks. I don't think we just handwave poor design instead of making fun of it and mocking it. The world is as already as ugly as it is.. > At the very least, by integrating payments your social media platform doesn't have have to sell ads How much do they think they could get from these payments? 1-3%? Shopify's net revenue is lower than Twitter's was before they buyout and they are not even profitable. The interest payments alone on the debt Musk offloaded to Twitter as part of the acquisition are about equal to Shopify's quarterly revenue. It's a very competitive field with basically no margins, I'm not quite sure what Twitters edge would be? They'd need to charge way more than their competitors if they wanted to use the revenue to fund the rest of the company after getting rid of ads... > integrated payment methods rather than posting on Facebook The lack of an integrated payment processor is not the reason Facebook Marketplace doesen't support direct payment payments. That's an insignificant problem compared to all the other stuff they would need to handle with huge costs due to significant overhead (just like at what Ebay does, also they charge 10%+ and they are not that profitable either).
eertami 3y ago
There is no feature Twitter/X could bring to chat that would take users away from WhatsApp. It already covers 100% of it's users needs, is free, and has near complete market penetration in many regions. (If you are talking to anyone in Europe by text, you will always use WhatsApp)
- newZWhoDis 3y ago
  I don’t know a single person who uses “WhatsApp”. I have never had anyone, personally or professionally, give me a “whatsApp” username. In the US, if you met someone via online dating and said “here’s my whatsapp” 99% of people would think you are a scammer or something.
  - baby 3y ago
    I’m in the bay area and everyone uses whatsapp, and after that telegram or signal or insta
    - porridgeraisin 3y ago
      Yeah. And in India it's _only_ WhatsApp. Nothing else. It's the default.
- 2muchcoffeeman 3y ago
  Easy: End to end encryption that’s not controlled by Meta. It could take a while, but look at all the social media messaging apps from the past: ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, My Space, GChat, Orkut, Tumblr, Snapchat, FB messages etc They come and go. I sure don’t know what the ultimate chat/social media app looks like.
  - eertami 3y ago
    None of those services had even a fraction of the market penetration that WhatsApp has (in Europe and basically most places that are not North America.) WhatsApp is used by teenagers, great-grandparents, businesses, everyone. When you give someone your number in Europe, they won't ask how to contact you, they will just send you a message on WhatsApp 100% of the time. Only tech nerds and small groups use Signal etc. To be clear, I don't think this is a good thing. But it is simply the reality of the world. It's been like this for 10 years with no signs of changing. WhatsApp could of course die one day, but only if Meta does something categorically stupid or unpopular that forces people off the platform (eg, what Twitter is doing). WhatsApp is not a social media platform and that's precisely why it is so universally used.
baby 3y ago
Yet twitter still has the worse DM experience of all platforms lol

fassssst 3y ago

But the west already has iOS and Android. A super app is just a wannabe OS.

valianteffort 3y ago
Google and Apple don't offer social media, the former has a video/streaming platform but doesn't seem concerned about losing it's dominant position.
- fassssst 3y ago
  Group messaging is social media.
wizofaus 3y ago
A super app presumably has a dedicated product manager with some sort of vision and control of what goes into what features are available. You could hardly say the same of iOS+AppStore or Android+Playstore. Note that I'm not the least bit convinced we would benefit from a super app, but WeChat seems to fill a need for however many millions of users it has.
- pohl 3y ago
  Could you elaborate on that? It sounds like you’re saying that Google and Apple have no product management and they’re just shipping random features every year, but that sounds bonkers so I must be misunderstanding.
  - wizofaus 3y ago
    Er, no, I specifically said iOS plus AppStore and Android plus PlayStore, as it's from there that users get the functionality that's not part of the core-OS, and even allowing for the apps Apple & Google publish themselves I don't believe there's any one product manager that decides what features the full set of such apps should offer.

pdntspa 3y ago

Why does chat need to be 'interesting'?

2muchcoffeeman 3y ago
That’s besides the point. Elon overpaid for a shitty social media company. So understandably he’s trying to make the money back. He’s not going to make it back just being another banal social media company. Nothing has to be anything and I feel like I got down voted because people hate Elon now. I’m not asking you to like him. I’m only saying he’s going to try and create something and maybe it’s good.
- wwtrv 3y ago
  > shitty social media company How was it more shitty than what it is now or what Musk is trying to turn it into? At least it had a quite decent logo instead of as generic as it get X character. > interesting Also what so 'interesting' (in a non crazy/entertaining way) about what Musk is doing?
  - 2muchcoffeeman 3y ago
    What was good about Twitter before? Limited message size. Couldn't edit posts. Impossible to discuss anything with any nuance or civility. Full of echo chambers. Why was it better? Because they kicked off people you didn't like, and whose content you probably didn't follow anyway? >At least it had a quite decent logo instead of as generic as it get X character. It's just a logo. Companies come and go. Everyone needs to get over it. Trying to duplicate WeChat is an objectively interesting strategy. At the very least, by integrating payments your social media platform doesn't have have to sell ads. You could buy items directly off a merchants Twitter/X page and Twitter/X can just take a merchant fee. You could have a market place with integrated payment methods rather than posting on Facebook and working out an intermediate payment method on the side.
    - wwtrv 3y ago
      > What was good about Twitter before oh.. I never personally liked Twitter. I was just thinking about the company itself rather than their products. > It's just a logo It also objectively sucks. I don't think we just handwave poor design instead of making fun of it and mocking it. The world is as already as ugly as it is.. > At the very least, by integrating payments your social media platform doesn't have have to sell ads How much do they think they could get from these payments? 1-3%? Shopify's net revenue is lower than Twitter's was before they buyout and they are not even profitable. The interest payments alone on the debt Musk offloaded to Twitter as part of the acquisition are about equal to Shopify's quarterly revenue. It's a very competitive field with basically no margins, I'm not quite sure what Twitters edge would be? They'd need to charge way more than their competitors if they wanted to use the revenue to fund the rest of the company after getting rid of ads... > integrated payment methods rather than posting on Facebook The lack of an integrated payment processor is not the reason Facebook Marketplace doesen't support direct payment payments. That's an insignificant problem compared to all the other stuff they would need to handle with huge costs due to significant overhead (just like at what Ebay does, also they charge 10%+ and they are not that profitable either).

eertami 3y ago

There is no feature Twitter/X could bring to chat that would take users away from WhatsApp. It already covers 100% of it's users needs, is free, and has near complete market penetration in many regions. (If you are talking to anyone in Europe by text, you will always use WhatsApp)

newZWhoDis 3y ago
I don’t know a single person who uses “WhatsApp”. I have never had anyone, personally or professionally, give me a “whatsApp” username. In the US, if you met someone via online dating and said “here’s my whatsapp” 99% of people would think you are a scammer or something.
- baby 3y ago
  I’m in the bay area and everyone uses whatsapp, and after that telegram or signal or insta
  - porridgeraisin 3y ago
    Yeah. And in India it's _only_ WhatsApp. Nothing else. It's the default.
2muchcoffeeman 3y ago
Easy: End to end encryption that’s not controlled by Meta. It could take a while, but look at all the social media messaging apps from the past: ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, My Space, GChat, Orkut, Tumblr, Snapchat, FB messages etc They come and go. I sure don’t know what the ultimate chat/social media app looks like.
- eertami 3y ago
  None of those services had even a fraction of the market penetration that WhatsApp has (in Europe and basically most places that are not North America.) WhatsApp is used by teenagers, great-grandparents, businesses, everyone. When you give someone your number in Europe, they won't ask how to contact you, they will just send you a message on WhatsApp 100% of the time. Only tech nerds and small groups use Signal etc. To be clear, I don't think this is a good thing. But it is simply the reality of the world. It's been like this for 10 years with no signs of changing. WhatsApp could of course die one day, but only if Meta does something categorically stupid or unpopular that forces people off the platform (eg, what Twitter is doing). WhatsApp is not a social media platform and that's precisely why it is so universally used.

baby 3y ago

Yet twitter still has the worse DM experience of all platforms lol