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Perhaps you think that the API-centric model would have never worked, and that if the ad guys wouldn’t have won, Twitter would not be alive today. Maybe. I thi

Perhaps you think that the API-centric model would have never worked, and that if the ad guys wouldn’t have won, Twitter would not be alive today. Maybe. I think this deserves a bit more attention. It's easy to point fingers and make all kinds of what-if predictions, but just handwaving money aside in favor of a poorly defined API utopia ignores the reality of running a business.

runako 14y ago
Agreed. It would be a much more compelling argument if there were examples of successful API companies presented as possible models for Twitter as an API company. (In addition to the example of Google as an advertising company.)
- jusben1369 14y ago
  Yes I have to agree with the two of you. That was my first thought upon finishing. It's odd Dalton doesn't define one or two solid examples of what this successful cloud API could be.
  - kevinqi 14y ago
    There are successful cloud APIs, I think - Twilio comes to mind. It doesn't mean that it would work for Twitter, but it's not impossible.
    - tmzt 14y ago
      But Twilio is wrapping an underlying service, not providing a service itself
  - dalton 14y ago
    I felt that discussing alternate business models was outside the scope of the post for 2 reasons: 1) I am an outsider, and no one understands what could or could not work better than the people working at Twitter. I am not sure what the pro-API camp inside of Twitter had in mind. 2) Debating which model would work better would derail the points I wanted to make in my post. I do think there are several large cloud companies that have both their "native" UI and rich/powerful APIs. For instance Salesforce, which my company both pays for & extensively modifies and extends via their API. Given the attention this post has attracted I may write a followup post just on this topic.
    - ShawnBird 14y ago
      > Given the attention this post has attracted I may write a followup post just on this topic. I hope you do, I am very interested in this topic and I would like to hear what you say and what people have to say in response to it.
- andrewcooke 14y ago
  what would the example of a successful advertising company have been, before google? in other words - isn't this kind of the point? google is the big advertising company. everyone else is a copy. the big api company is still open space...
  - runako 14y ago
    >> what would the example of a successful advertising company have been, before google? ??? There was a whole generation of successful advertising (Internet) companies before Google. Even Google went through an internal debate about how much/whether to copy the best of that generation (Yahoo). And advertising-funded businesses are decades older than the Internet. Also, 1 exemplar >> 0 exemplars was my point.
  - marcusf 14y ago
    The entire media space, for example? TV, magazines, newspapers, radio, …

runako 14y ago

Agreed. It would be a much more compelling argument if there were examples of successful API companies presented as possible models for Twitter as an API company. (In addition to the example of Google as an advertising company.)

jusben1369 14y ago
Yes I have to agree with the two of you. That was my first thought upon finishing. It's odd Dalton doesn't define one or two solid examples of what this successful cloud API could be.
- kevinqi 14y ago
  There are successful cloud APIs, I think - Twilio comes to mind. It doesn't mean that it would work for Twitter, but it's not impossible.
  - tmzt 14y ago
    But Twilio is wrapping an underlying service, not providing a service itself
- dalton 14y ago
  I felt that discussing alternate business models was outside the scope of the post for 2 reasons: 1) I am an outsider, and no one understands what could or could not work better than the people working at Twitter. I am not sure what the pro-API camp inside of Twitter had in mind. 2) Debating which model would work better would derail the points I wanted to make in my post. I do think there are several large cloud companies that have both their "native" UI and rich/powerful APIs. For instance Salesforce, which my company both pays for & extensively modifies and extends via their API. Given the attention this post has attracted I may write a followup post just on this topic.
  - ShawnBird 14y ago
    > Given the attention this post has attracted I may write a followup post just on this topic. I hope you do, I am very interested in this topic and I would like to hear what you say and what people have to say in response to it.
andrewcooke 14y ago
what would the example of a successful advertising company have been, before google? in other words - isn't this kind of the point? google is the big advertising company. everyone else is a copy. the big api company is still open space...
- runako 14y ago
  >> what would the example of a successful advertising company have been, before google? ??? There was a whole generation of successful advertising (Internet) companies before Google. Even Google went through an internal debate about how much/whether to copy the best of that generation (Yahoo). And advertising-funded businesses are decades older than the Internet. Also, 1 exemplar >> 0 exemplars was my point.
- marcusf 14y ago
  The entire media space, for example? TV, magazines, newspapers, radio, …