Good point by Kurt Wagner regarding Instagrams 300 million monthly users:
Also, Facebook now has four products with more users than Twitter (284M):
FB (1.35B)
WhatsApp (600M)
Messenger (500M)
Instagram (300M)
Twitter’s Marketing Problem
Ben Thompson:
“What Twitter has is a marketing problem. To be clear, while advertising is a part of marketing, marketing is about much more than advertising. It’s also about understanding your market, what their needs are, and how your product meets those needs. I continue to see little evidence Twitter has any idea, and I think their accidental success is largely to blame.”
Twitter was more or less an happy accident. Accidents don’t breed strategy, it seems.
(Twitter also is special in another regard: It is a simple product, meaning it always had few but important features. Every small change can bring with it significant consequences. Doesn’t make it any easier.)
Twitter and Facebook indirectly exposed to any changes to in-app purchases
Twitter and Facebook indirectly exposed to any changes to in-app purchases
Ben Thompson:
“While Facebook’s ad network is, I’m guessing, broader than just app installs, the reality is that app installs dominate Facebook’s mobile revenue as well. And, the primary types of apps that advertise for installs are free-to-play games, looking for the specific customer type who will potentially spend hundreds of dollars on in-app purchases.
This, then, raises a frightening specter for both Twitter and Facebook: they are indirectly exposed to any changes Apple or Google may make in their policy with regards to in-app purchases”
Fascinating point.
Under this agreement, Nielsen and Twitter will deliver a syndicated-standard metric around the reach of the TV conversation on Twitter, slated for commercial availability at the start of the fall 2013 TV season.
Nielsen and Twitter Establish Social TV Rating
Two thoughts:
1. This is the future of Twitter as it itself intends it to be. ‘We are big and we make bilateral deals.’
2. Did Nielsen forget about Facebook?
http://newnetland.com/2012-12-under-this-agreement-nielsen-and-twitter-will/
Flipboard hits 20M users, with one new signup per minute | VentureBeat
Flipboard hits 20M users, with one new signup per minute | VentureBeat
20 million users who will not be happy when (not if) the Twitter section on Flipboard disappears.
Twitter-CEO: We want to move away from companies that “build off of Twitter, to a world where people build into Twitter.”
Twitter CEO Dick Costolo in an interview on WSJ.com:
In its events push, Mr. Costolo said Twitter is vying to “more closely tie the shared experience on Twitter to the actual event that is happening.” As Twitter burnishes its platform, Mr. Costolo added that Twitter also wants to move away from companies that “build off of Twitter, to a world where people build into Twitter.”
There you have it. Because of the chosen ad based business model Twitter is moving from an offsite integration to onsite integration. If they go cracking down on clients from third parties and other apps they will almost certainly lose their prime position in the web ecosystem. Good for everyone else as Twitter had for a long time the almost sole attention of indie web developers looking for a web platform to build off on.
That is bad for Twitters long term outlook but the investors, who at this point almost certainly are the driving force behind the companys moves, are probably eyeing an IPO that comes right after the first big ad successes in numbers and before the probable meltdown of Twitters usage.
Interestingly Twitters biggest competitor Facebook is earning most of its revenues with advertisement but doesn’t seem to have a problem with offsite integration from Open Graph to clients.
