6 ms·

It certainly doesn't seem as promising a territory as it used to. Not so much because it's more dangerous as because Twitter hasn't turned out to be a "platfor

by pg 14y ago

It certainly doesn't seem as promising a territory as it used to. Not so much because it's more dangerous as because Twitter hasn't turned out to be a "platform" in the same sense as say iOS has.

maxcan 14y ago
Does the explosion of results-by-tweet at the London Olympics, including first-hand from athletes themselves, shows that as an underlying platform for real time news twitter has strong disruptive potential?
- pg 14y ago
  Yes, Twitter itself is clearly having a big effect on the world.
  - maxcan 14y ago
    So the conclusion is that Twitter itself will be a significant force for a long time, but principally to their own benefit and building a company entirely dependent on their platform (or any single platform) will continue to be a dangerous game to play.
donall 14y ago
Does the same apply to Facebook? And if not, is it likely to within the next 12 months? It seems like a lot of developers/startups put their eggs in the FB basket. I wonder if, from a funding perspective, that behaviour would set off alarm bells today?
- pg 14y ago
  Facebook seems somewhere between Twitter and iOS.
  - dave1619 14y ago
    Would you consider iOS and Android similar in terms of risk and developer potential?
    - pg 14y ago
      To most startups we fund, iOS is way more important. Nearly all build for iOS first and then maybe one day port to Android. There are a few exceptions like Kyte (http://kytephone.com http://kytephone.com) who use Android to do things you can't do on iOS. And of course Apportable (http://apportable.com http://apportable.com) has been very successful auto-porting iOS apps to Android.
      - skibrah 14y ago
        do you see an API becoming a "platform" in the same sense as iOS/Android or will they remain services that provide content and facilitate specific features?
      - w1ntermute 14y ago
        > Nearly all build for iOS first and then maybe one day port to Android. It's unfortunate that this persists even though Android now has twice the smartphone marketshare iOS has. It doesn't seem like things will be changing any time soon either.
        wmeredith 14y ago
        Android has market share, but iOS has the profit (money and interest).
        ryanwaggoner 14y ago
        From what I hear, a ton of those Android phones are really crappy hardware that's given away free by cell phone providers. Android's 70% marketshare isn't all (or even mostly) the Nexus. So it's not even clear whether many of those phones could even run a lot of apps, let alone run them well. Additionally, for various reasons, iOS seems to be both "hipper" and more profitable for developers. This could be related to the point above, if most of the Android phones are owned by people who don't use apps much, let alone buy them.
wamatt 14y ago
@pg - I suspect politics might prevent you from answering, but do you have a view on whether this direction of Twitter's, is smart or beneficial to them in the long run?
- pg 14y ago
  They seem to be doing pretty well. They head-faked a lot of developers, but I don't think that was deliberate.
  - wamatt 14y ago
    >They head-faked a lot of developers, but I don't think that was deliberate. Yeah I'd agree with that. Can't say either if this will have major repucussions in the future. Users probably don't care about these issues and dev's will suck it up, because they still want the userbases. That said, a social network can potentially become 'uncool', pretty quickly, especially if they piss on the influencers.
JayNeely 14y ago
Do you feel like Dalton's App.net could grow into a viable alternative?

by pg 14y ago

It certainly doesn't seem as promising a territory as it used to. Not so much because it's more dangerous as because Twitter hasn't turned out to be a "platform" in the same sense as say iOS has.

maxcan 14y ago

Does the explosion of results-by-tweet at the London Olympics, including first-hand from athletes themselves, shows that as an underlying platform for real time news twitter has strong disruptive potential?

pg 14y ago
Yes, Twitter itself is clearly having a big effect on the world.
- maxcan 14y ago
  So the conclusion is that Twitter itself will be a significant force for a long time, but principally to their own benefit and building a company entirely dependent on their platform (or any single platform) will continue to be a dangerous game to play.

donall 14y ago

Does the same apply to Facebook? And if not, is it likely to within the next 12 months? It seems like a lot of developers/startups put their eggs in the FB basket. I wonder if, from a funding perspective, that behaviour would set off alarm bells today?

pg 14y ago
Facebook seems somewhere between Twitter and iOS.
- dave1619 14y ago
  Would you consider iOS and Android similar in terms of risk and developer potential?
  - pg 14y ago
    To most startups we fund, iOS is way more important. Nearly all build for iOS first and then maybe one day port to Android. There are a few exceptions like Kyte (http://kytephone.com http://kytephone.com) who use Android to do things you can't do on iOS. And of course Apportable (http://apportable.com http://apportable.com) has been very successful auto-porting iOS apps to Android.
    - skibrah 14y ago
      do you see an API becoming a "platform" in the same sense as iOS/Android or will they remain services that provide content and facilitate specific features?
    - w1ntermute 14y ago
      > Nearly all build for iOS first and then maybe one day port to Android. It's unfortunate that this persists even though Android now has twice the smartphone marketshare iOS has. It doesn't seem like things will be changing any time soon either.
      - wmeredith 14y ago
        Android has market share, but iOS has the profit (money and interest).
      - ryanwaggoner 14y ago
        From what I hear, a ton of those Android phones are really crappy hardware that's given away free by cell phone providers. Android's 70% marketshare isn't all (or even mostly) the Nexus. So it's not even clear whether many of those phones could even run a lot of apps, let alone run them well. Additionally, for various reasons, iOS seems to be both "hipper" and more profitable for developers. This could be related to the point above, if most of the Android phones are owned by people who don't use apps much, let alone buy them.

wamatt 14y ago

@pg - I suspect politics might prevent you from answering, but do you have a view on whether this direction of Twitter's, is smart or beneficial to them in the long run?

pg 14y ago
They seem to be doing pretty well. They head-faked a lot of developers, but I don't think that was deliberate.
- wamatt 14y ago
  >They head-faked a lot of developers, but I don't think that was deliberate. Yeah I'd agree with that. Can't say either if this will have major repucussions in the future. Users probably don't care about these issues and dev's will suck it up, because they still want the userbases. That said, a social network can potentially become 'uncool', pretty quickly, especially if they piss on the influencers.

JayNeely 14y ago

Do you feel like Dalton's App.net could grow into a viable alternative?