5 ms·

But how exactly do they make money on developers using their API?

by state 11y ago

Igglyboo 11y ago
Charge for less rate limiting? As the app grows the usage grows and twitter makes more money.
krisdol 11y ago
The way I see it, third party applications increase the value of using twitter, bringing more users to it. Twitter as a social sharing tool has very little value to me, personally, but as a chat tool, marketing tool, or customer support tool I think it has a lot of potential. Its presentation/UX is not very optimized for those experiences, though -- and that's why third party apps exist. If an open source project builds its chatroom on top of twitter, that's a huge value-add and would bring people to use twitter in order to efficiently communicate with the company, in the same way people use Slack because companies host their support on it. By the way, I think their rate limiting is fine for most third party apps. There is a lot that can be done with intermediate caching and the Streaming API.
- lotso 11y ago
  Brings value is not the same as brings money.
fweespeech 11y ago
The same way everyone else does: 1) Ads via the in-line feeds [removing ads is a ToS violation, same way the real world ad networks now is basically a js/link configuration...can sell CPC this way] 2) Charge for API calls. 3) Charge for "premium membership" that unlocks the api at like $10/user/year
- mahouse 11y ago
  Who do you charge for the API calls?
  - emmab 11y ago
    Ideally the developer would be able to choose between paying themselves or letting users pay through micropayments.
    - mahouse 11y ago
      With the amount of app piracy, this would make no sense, in my opinion. Developers would be actually robbed.
      - untog 11y ago
        Aside from that, almost all apps are paid for once, not on a subscription basis.
    - wsinks 11y ago
      Pretty sure your statement is a breakthrough.
  - itsmillertime4u 11y ago
    I'd gladly pay for premium API access as a Twitter user which would then allow me to use third party apps.
  - fweespeech 11y ago
    2) Charge for API calls. --- For in-house development and/or SaaS software that interfaces with Twitter. Even something like $.10 per 1,000 requests would add up pretty fast for large deployments. Example? http://freshdesk.com/integrations/help-desk-ticketing-twitter http://freshdesk.com/integrations/help-desk-ticketing-twitte... These people could be milked by Twitter. Its a SaaS webapp so they can protect their API access. 3) Charge for "premium membership" that unlocks the api at like $10/user/year --- app piracy isn't an issue if a user is paying to unlock the API for their account Also, if app piracy is an issue because they can get ahold of your API keys, that just means you need to route it through your internal API and secure things properly. It isn't Twitters job to fix the fact you don't want to have any infrastructure.
RexRollman 11y ago
Hell, is Twitter even turning a profit yet?

But how exactly do they make money on developers using their API?

by state 11y ago

But how exactly do they make money on developers using their API?

Igglyboo 11y ago

Charge for less rate limiting? As the app grows the usage grows and twitter makes more money.

krisdol 11y ago

The way I see it, third party applications increase the value of using twitter, bringing more users to it. Twitter as a social sharing tool has very little value to me, personally, but as a chat tool, marketing tool, or customer support tool I think it has a lot of potential. Its presentation/UX is not very optimized for those experiences, though -- and that's why third party apps exist. If an open source project builds its chatroom on top of twitter, that's a huge value-add and would bring people to use twitter in order to efficiently communicate with the company, in the same way people use Slack because companies host their support on it. By the way, I think their rate limiting is fine for most third party apps. There is a lot that can be done with intermediate caching and the Streaming API.

lotso 11y ago
Brings value is not the same as brings money.

fweespeech 11y ago

The same way everyone else does: 1) Ads via the in-line feeds [removing ads is a ToS violation, same way the real world ad networks now is basically a js/link configuration...can sell CPC this way] 2) Charge for API calls. 3) Charge for "premium membership" that unlocks the api at like $10/user/year

mahouse 11y ago
Who do you charge for the API calls?
- emmab 11y ago
  Ideally the developer would be able to choose between paying themselves or letting users pay through micropayments.
  - mahouse 11y ago
    With the amount of app piracy, this would make no sense, in my opinion. Developers would be actually robbed.
    - untog 11y ago
      Aside from that, almost all apps are paid for once, not on a subscription basis.
  - wsinks 11y ago
    Pretty sure your statement is a breakthrough.
- itsmillertime4u 11y ago
  I'd gladly pay for premium API access as a Twitter user which would then allow me to use third party apps.
- fweespeech 11y ago
  2) Charge for API calls. --- For in-house development and/or SaaS software that interfaces with Twitter. Even something like $.10 per 1,000 requests would add up pretty fast for large deployments. Example? http://freshdesk.com/integrations/help-desk-ticketing-twitter http://freshdesk.com/integrations/help-desk-ticketing-twitte... These people could be milked by Twitter. Its a SaaS webapp so they can protect their API access. 3) Charge for "premium membership" that unlocks the api at like $10/user/year --- app piracy isn't an issue if a user is paying to unlock the API for their account Also, if app piracy is an issue because they can get ahold of your API keys, that just means you need to route it through your internal API and secure things properly. It isn't Twitters job to fix the fact you don't want to have any infrastructure.

RexRollman 11y ago

Hell, is Twitter even turning a profit yet?