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DataSift and Gnip had access to the Twitter firehose (every single tweet posted, live). Normal businesses / developers can't get access to that. Twitter's "st
by clay_to_n 12y ago
DataSift and Gnip had access to the Twitter firehose (every single tweet posted, live). Normal businesses / developers can't get access to that. Twitter's "streaming" API is a tiny fraction of the firehose.
So DataSift wasn't just reselling their data - they, along with Gnip, had a partnership that allowed them to get access to the firehose. For many social media companies, the firehose is a necessity, so they bought contracts with Gnip or DataSift.
Then Twitter bought Gnip, and is cutting off DataSift's access to the firehose.
- MichaelGG 12y agoRight so if we say Gnip is Twitter, then anyone can go buy data from Twitter (even if it's a wholly owned subcompany). DataSift didn't have much of a value add (OK, historical data, common filters for Twitter and Reddit and others, etc.) But nothing that Twitter can't just in-house now that the market got nice and established.
- jackgavigan 12y agoYes. Having acquired Gnip, Twitter can now offer the same services that DataSift offers. So, Twitter terminates their "partnership" with DataSift, and all of DataSift's customers (i.e. the market that DataSift spent money and effort getting "nice and established", educating potential customers, helping them figure out how to make use of the data, etc.) who want to continue benefitting from those services will now migrate to Twitter/Gnip. I bet Twitter/Gnip will come out with some tool to make it ultra-easy for DataSift's customers to migrate across.