7 ms·

Twitter Takes Step Toward Commercial Accounts

17 points by physcab 17y ago

deleted 17y ago
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crcoffey 17y ago
It's still blows my mind in exactly how popular Twitter has become.
- theklub 17y ago
  Consider how much publicity they get.
  - crcoffey 17y ago
    But thats my point. Why? Twitters entire concept is just a head spin, As a casual bystander to the twit phase, I gather that 90% of the posts are either ego trips, basic daily occurrences, spam or marketing. Why can't you meet your friends for coffee instead of twittering them about it from Starbucks. P.S: Sent from my iphone.
- sfphotoarts 17y ago
  Also consider that it provides a 'service' that people want and/or enjoy. The internet has changed, it was born as a means to share physics data, quickly it grew to provide services that made our lives easier/better (online banking, wikipedia, search, photo sharing, travel, real-estate, the list goes on and on..) Then, another change happened. The internet passed the point of making real-world services more efficient, and social activities became prevalent. Successful apps no longer need to be useful in any way, it's enough that they are fun, or help you vent, or provide a way to reach more people, to express, or in essence to be human. The wonderful thing is that the tools to make these new applications have also matured and become easy enough that a small number of people (as small as 1) can build something that is used by millions. Remember the days when you needed a team of ops people and c programmers to deal with networking and file systems and all that nonsense. Now you can deploy a web app with very little code and very little skill? This is a wonderful thing. It doesn't matter if you like Twitter or not, its something that a lot of other people do like and the wonderful thing about the internet is that there is room for everyone. (well, with ip6 there is :)
RyanMcGreal 17y ago
It's a little mysterious how Twitter manages to stay in business now, given that they don't seem to charge anyone for anything.
- nir 17y ago
  They're in business with the money they raised. The fact that putting up a few content pages nets them an NY Times story probably doesn't hurt attracting further investment..
  - RyanMcGreal 17y ago
    Yes, that's what makes me nervous. I remember back in 1999 listening to a startup CFO saying her company was having cash-flow problems and needed more VC funding, and thinking that what they really needed was a revenue stream. (That was when I realized with a clunk that the dot com bubble's days were numbered.) Twitter has been remarkably successful at attracting a huge community of users and developers for their service, but sooner or later they're going to have to find a way to monetize that - without alienating the huge user base on which any viable monetizing plan must depend.
    - froo 17y ago
      "without alienating the huge user base on which any viable monetizing plan must depend." See, I think you've completely missed the point with twitter not monetising currently. They're doing small, consistent UI changes, easing users into the potential ad-supported experience. Twitter's users barely flinched when Twitter implemented the "ads" on the web UI on the right. Now with the leaked documents, it's pretty clear where Twitter is going - Real Time search. One would expect some sort of adwords clone will be implemented. Just because they're not monetising right now, doesn't mean there is no revenue plan being tossed around inside Twitter HQ. I'm not a betting man, but I'd lay money on it.
    - michaelfairley 17y ago
      Currently, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are all in the red. They have enormous value because of their potential to make gobs of cash due to the amount of eyes that look at them everyday. The problem during the dot-com boom/bust was that ideas that were basically crap (aka. had no real users, nor much potential to get them) were getting wayyyy too much money, and were often being started and led by business types who thought they could just hire some programmers and their ideas would spring to life and make them infinitely rich. FB/YT/Twitter are all in a very different position and actually have potential to make their investors infinitely rich in the not too distant future.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]

17 points by physcab 17y ago

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

crcoffey 17y ago

It's still blows my mind in exactly how popular Twitter has become.

theklub 17y ago
Consider how much publicity they get.
- crcoffey 17y ago
  But thats my point. Why? Twitters entire concept is just a head spin, As a casual bystander to the twit phase, I gather that 90% of the posts are either ego trips, basic daily occurrences, spam or marketing. Why can't you meet your friends for coffee instead of twittering them about it from Starbucks. P.S: Sent from my iphone.
sfphotoarts 17y ago
Also consider that it provides a 'service' that people want and/or enjoy. The internet has changed, it was born as a means to share physics data, quickly it grew to provide services that made our lives easier/better (online banking, wikipedia, search, photo sharing, travel, real-estate, the list goes on and on..) Then, another change happened. The internet passed the point of making real-world services more efficient, and social activities became prevalent. Successful apps no longer need to be useful in any way, it's enough that they are fun, or help you vent, or provide a way to reach more people, to express, or in essence to be human. The wonderful thing is that the tools to make these new applications have also matured and become easy enough that a small number of people (as small as 1) can build something that is used by millions. Remember the days when you needed a team of ops people and c programmers to deal with networking and file systems and all that nonsense. Now you can deploy a web app with very little code and very little skill? This is a wonderful thing. It doesn't matter if you like Twitter or not, its something that a lot of other people do like and the wonderful thing about the internet is that there is room for everyone. (well, with ip6 there is :)

RyanMcGreal 17y ago

It's a little mysterious how Twitter manages to stay in business now, given that they don't seem to charge anyone for anything.

nir 17y ago
They're in business with the money they raised. The fact that putting up a few content pages nets them an NY Times story probably doesn't hurt attracting further investment..
- RyanMcGreal 17y ago
  Yes, that's what makes me nervous. I remember back in 1999 listening to a startup CFO saying her company was having cash-flow problems and needed more VC funding, and thinking that what they really needed was a revenue stream. (That was when I realized with a clunk that the dot com bubble's days were numbered.) Twitter has been remarkably successful at attracting a huge community of users and developers for their service, but sooner or later they're going to have to find a way to monetize that - without alienating the huge user base on which any viable monetizing plan must depend.
  - froo 17y ago
    "without alienating the huge user base on which any viable monetizing plan must depend." See, I think you've completely missed the point with twitter not monetising currently. They're doing small, consistent UI changes, easing users into the potential ad-supported experience. Twitter's users barely flinched when Twitter implemented the "ads" on the web UI on the right. Now with the leaked documents, it's pretty clear where Twitter is going - Real Time search. One would expect some sort of adwords clone will be implemented. Just because they're not monetising right now, doesn't mean there is no revenue plan being tossed around inside Twitter HQ. I'm not a betting man, but I'd lay money on it.
  - michaelfairley 17y ago
    Currently, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are all in the red. They have enormous value because of their potential to make gobs of cash due to the amount of eyes that look at them everyday. The problem during the dot-com boom/bust was that ideas that were basically crap (aka. had no real users, nor much potential to get them) were getting wayyyy too much money, and were often being started and led by business types who thought they could just hire some programmers and their ideas would spring to life and make them infinitely rich. FB/YT/Twitter are all in a very different position and actually have potential to make their investors infinitely rich in the not too distant future.

deleted 17y ago

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