Here is the thing that tech writers seem to forget... You don't need to be Facebook or Twitter to be successful, especially if you have paying customers. Peopl

Here is the thing that tech writers seem to forget... You don't need to be Facebook or Twitter to be successful, especially if you have paying customers. People will pay for hosting. Look at Wordpress. Wordpress is a nice free platform, but plenty of companies make great money hosting Wordpress for paying customers. Why wouldn't people pay for their own hosted twitter like service? If App.net can pull that off, then there is probably a business there. It isn't maybe a billion dollar a year business, but with a small team 7 or 8 figures a year is nothing to sneeze at.