5 ms·

Reminder: Twitter was started in 2006

39 points by rishi 17y ago

tumult 17y ago
So? I used Twitter in 2006. My tweets were like, "going to the store now." "In line at the movie theater." etc. Literally, what are you doing right now? And that's what other people used it for, too. It was popular even in 2006 and 2007, by web app standards. Right now it's ridiculously, explosively popular. "It must have been hard to stay motivated, keep investors happy, and innovate from 2006-2008ish." Just because you didn't use Twitter in 2006 doesn't mean it was a wasteland.
- stanleydrew 17y ago
  And I can remember all the major news networks on twitter ramping up for the 2008 election.
- borism 17y ago
  what innovation?
  - tumult 17y ago
    That too :)
suhail 17y ago
http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/07/15/is-twttr-interesting/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/07/15/is-twttr-interesting/
- rythie 17y ago
  It's funny that virtually all the 2006 comments are negative
- riffer 17y ago
  In a similar vein, this is a comparison of 8 multi-person SMS services from September 2006: http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/27/a-look-at-eight-multi-person-sms-services/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/27/a-look-at-eight-multi-p...
patio11 17y ago
I started my business in 2006, too. Put it this way: if Twitter and I swapped sales numbers, we'd both be failures. Me: Dang, I lost a salary roughly equivalent to my day job. That means I have to scale back plans for Christmas this year. Twitter: AWW "#$& we have revenue! NOOOOO! Me: ??? Twitter: Now our valuation will be in reference to the revenue instead of in reference to the effectiveness of our PR machine! Me: ??? Twitter: By the simple expedient of paying us real money you have wiped out BILLIONS in imaginary wealth! Me: ?????
- iamelgringo 17y ago
  You're in completely different businesses, though. At this point, Twitter is a medium (as in new form of media). They may change their business, at some point, but right now, they have created a new broadcast medium, and they're doing what all media people try to do. Get as many viewers as possible. That's why they've had so much interest from other media companies and celebrities. CNN and Ashton Kutcher don't really understand software as a service. You're in a software as a service business. Being technologists, I think that we understand the software and technologies quite well, but I think that it's easy for us to confuse the completely separate businesses that are being built using those technologies. 100 years ago the blacksmiths like my grandfather became car mechanics. The technologies both involved metal and fire, so the people that understood metal and fire became the people that fixed the horseless carriage. There really wasn't a mental divide for people involved in those businesses because the technologies were so similar. In another 20 years, I think the distinction between software as media and software as a product ans software as a service is going to become a lot clearer. Until then, we're going to have a lot of confusion about this.
  - axod 17y ago
    >> "they have created a new broadcast medium" You're in PR right? I still think the moment twitter try to turn on ads, they're doomed. Monetizing twitter is extremely non-trivial IMHO, especially after providing it completely free for so long. Also for most people twitter is just the network their 3rd party twitter client is using. Monetizing that is really hard.
mixmax 17y ago
It takes years to build an overnight success.
cromulent 17y ago
I think it might be hard to monetize it, because as soon as they add any friction then perhaps competitive services will start up with the same API. If someone else provided a twitter service, with the same API, then twitter clients (including web clients) could easily be updated to subscribe to both. Or any number of twitter services. Decentralized twitter. Is there any reason why tweets need to go through a central hub?
- edd 17y ago
  Competitive services have already been created. There have been attempts to do it all: decentralise it, improve it, extend it to more characters, add video, add photos. Especially during their bad points where they were down every 5 minutes due to load. Twitter has enough of a user base that its stupidly hard for anyone to compete with it. The core system is "very simple", the user base is what counts in this game.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
timcederman 17y ago
So what was the tipping point? Celebrities?
- hack_edu 17y ago
  SXSW '08
- FreeRadical 17y ago
  Regular Techcrunch shoutouts and the API
- forgotmypasswd 17y ago
  CNN and other news organizations reporting on tweets
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]

39 points by rishi 17y ago

So? I used Twitter in 2006. My tweets were like, "going to the store now." "In line at the movie theater." etc. Literally, what are you doing right now? And that's what other people used it for, too. It was popular even in 2006 and 2007, by web app standards. Right now it's ridiculously, explosively popular. "It must have been hard to stay motivated, keep investors happy, and innovate from 2006-2008ish." Just because you didn't use Twitter in 2006 doesn't mean it was a wasteland.

stanleydrew 17y ago
And I can remember all the major news networks on twitter ramping up for the 2008 election.
borism 17y ago
what innovation?
- tumult 17y ago
  That too :)

suhail 17y ago

http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/07/15/is-twttr-interesting/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/07/15/is-twttr-interesting/

rythie 17y ago
It's funny that virtually all the 2006 comments are negative
riffer 17y ago
In a similar vein, this is a comparison of 8 multi-person SMS services from September 2006: http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/27/a-look-at-eight-multi-person-sms-services/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/27/a-look-at-eight-multi-p...

patio11 17y ago

I started my business in 2006, too. Put it this way: if Twitter and I swapped sales numbers, we'd both be failures. Me: Dang, I lost a salary roughly equivalent to my day job. That means I have to scale back plans for Christmas this year. Twitter: AWW "#$& we have revenue! NOOOOO! Me: ??? Twitter: Now our valuation will be in reference to the revenue instead of in reference to the effectiveness of our PR machine! Me: ??? Twitter: By the simple expedient of paying us real money you have wiped out BILLIONS in imaginary wealth! Me: ?????

iamelgringo 17y ago
You're in completely different businesses, though. At this point, Twitter is a medium (as in new form of media). They may change their business, at some point, but right now, they have created a new broadcast medium, and they're doing what all media people try to do. Get as many viewers as possible. That's why they've had so much interest from other media companies and celebrities. CNN and Ashton Kutcher don't really understand software as a service. You're in a software as a service business. Being technologists, I think that we understand the software and technologies quite well, but I think that it's easy for us to confuse the completely separate businesses that are being built using those technologies. 100 years ago the blacksmiths like my grandfather became car mechanics. The technologies both involved metal and fire, so the people that understood metal and fire became the people that fixed the horseless carriage. There really wasn't a mental divide for people involved in those businesses because the technologies were so similar. In another 20 years, I think the distinction between software as media and software as a product ans software as a service is going to become a lot clearer. Until then, we're going to have a lot of confusion about this.
- axod 17y ago
  >> "they have created a new broadcast medium" You're in PR right? I still think the moment twitter try to turn on ads, they're doomed. Monetizing twitter is extremely non-trivial IMHO, especially after providing it completely free for so long. Also for most people twitter is just the network their 3rd party twitter client is using. Monetizing that is really hard.

mixmax 17y ago

It takes years to build an overnight success.

cromulent 17y ago

I think it might be hard to monetize it, because as soon as they add any friction then perhaps competitive services will start up with the same API. If someone else provided a twitter service, with the same API, then twitter clients (including web clients) could easily be updated to subscribe to both. Or any number of twitter services. Decentralized twitter. Is there any reason why tweets need to go through a central hub?

edd 17y ago
Competitive services have already been created. There have been attempts to do it all: decentralise it, improve it, extend it to more characters, add video, add photos. Especially during their bad points where they were down every 5 minutes due to load. Twitter has enough of a user base that its stupidly hard for anyone to compete with it. The core system is "very simple", the user base is what counts in this game.

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

timcederman 17y ago

So what was the tipping point? Celebrities?

hack_edu 17y ago
SXSW '08
FreeRadical 17y ago
Regular Techcrunch shoutouts and the API
forgotmypasswd 17y ago
CNN and other news organizations reporting on tweets

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]