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Twitter Falls Below IPO Price as Concerns Mount Over CEO, Growth

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Re: Twitter Falls Below IPO Price as Concerns Mount Over CEO, Growth

#41

Post by stagger87 »

mikegioia wrote: post #29

To me the problem with Twitter lies solely with what Twitter's logged-out homepage looks like. I don't know what it's trying to be but asking me to sign up, browse categories (?), and read top celebrity posts is not it. Why is logged-out Twitter not a search engine? They have up-to-the-second thoughts from their users about everything and it's the first place I go when a site is down, or some news story is breaking.…

There is a search icon in the upper left of the landing page for me. It opens up a search bar.

Re: Twitter Falls Below IPO Price as Concerns Mount Over CEO, Growth

#42

Post by nuclear_eclipse »

freehunter wrote: post #6
Greenisus wrote: post #3

"At stake is whether Twitter [...] can become a mainstream platform instead of a niche forum favored by journalists and celebrities." I found that line interesting, because I often think of Twitter as a niche forum favored by technology workers and celebrities.

When I think of twitter I think nothing but mainstream. There are two platforms that anyone who is anyone (celebrity or business or politician) needs to have: either Facebook or Twitter. Niche is Instragram. Niche is Snapchat. But when Kardashian is on CNN once an hour because of a tweet, it's not niche. App.Net is niche. Twitter is the epitome of mainstream.

> "Niche is Instagram"

Except Instagram has more active users than Twitter...

Re: Twitter Falls Below IPO Price as Concerns Mount Over CEO, Growth

#43

Post by mikegioia »

stagger87 wrote: post #41
mikegioia wrote: post #29

To me the problem with Twitter lies solely with what Twitter's logged-out homepage looks like. I don't know what it's trying to be but asking me to sign up, browse categories (?), and read top celebrity posts is not it. Why is logged-out Twitter not a search engine? They have up-to-the-second thoughts from their users about everything and it's the first place I go when a site is down, or some news story is breaking.…

There is a search icon in the upper left of the landing page for me. It opens up a search bar.

I know that and I use it, but the problem is bigger because that homepage has no idea what it is or what it's trying to do. Search is an afterthought and I'm suggesting that search should be their primary focus for this page.

Logged in, yea you can get your feed and do whatever you want. But this logged-out page has absolutely 0 value for anyone who isn't a Twitter user.

Re: Twitter Falls Below IPO Price as Concerns Mount Over CEO, Growth

#44

Post by smithkl42 »

Aleman360 wrote: post #25
rezashirazian wrote: post #22

Twitter hasn't focused on anything else besides twitter. Facebook is taking on the mission of "connecting the world". Google has gone well beyond being only a search engine. Amazon has expanded into mobile, AWS and ... Twitter, on the other hand, is still pushing the same product.

Taking a step back, what's the advantage to society of every company growing into a conglomerate? Why not just let a company live and die on its core business? Do we really want to allow all that power to be consolidated into company boards and executives?

That's a great point for the larger societal stakeholders in our collective capitalist enterprise. But given the limited horizon that the market places on Twitter's management and shareholders, I don't know that it answers the question of why Twitter doesn't expand beyond its current narrow focus.

Re: Twitter Falls Below IPO Price as Concerns Mount Over CEO, Growth

#45

Post by Dwolb »

Aleman360 wrote: post #25
rezashirazian wrote: post #22

Twitter hasn't focused on anything else besides twitter. Facebook is taking on the mission of "connecting the world". Google has gone well beyond being only a search engine. Amazon has expanded into mobile, AWS and ... Twitter, on the other hand, is still pushing the same product.

Taking a step back, what's the advantage to society of every company growing into a conglomerate? Why not just let a company live and die on its core business? Do we really want to allow all that power to be consolidated into company boards and executives?

It's not really a societal advantage, it's an investor one. If you're an equity holder you expect some return on capital you've contributed. If you're Twitter, this means returns on current products/services or on new ones. Hopefully, from a strategic perspective new products are either higher return on capital than current products/services or exhibit (excuse the wording) synergies with current products/services.

Additionally OP alludes to a greater vision which a company may use to impact its decision making on new projects to pursue.

Re: Twitter Falls Below IPO Price as Concerns Mount Over CEO, Growth

#46

Post by sreyaNotfilc »

Greenisus wrote: post #3

"At stake is whether Twitter [...] can become a mainstream platform instead of a niche forum favored by journalists and celebrities." I found that line interesting, because I often think of Twitter as a niche forum favored by technology workers and celebrities.

The big issue is this - The goal of many start ups and software companies (especially modern ones circa 2000) is to get really big and then figure out how to make money. The problem with Twitter is that its doing just that. Exactly that even after its IPO. Its humongous yet doesn't have a decent business model (thus the falling stock prices).

You can't get much bigger (well known) as a brand/company than Twitter. From networks such as CNN, FOX NEWS, ESPN, ABC, etc... Twitter is everywhere! Everyone knows them.

So, there's a check. The issue happens with the second part : what do do with our fame?

Can Twitter use their power to make services that are profitable? Yes! Do they? No, not really :(

I often wonder why it takes so long for companies like these to blatantly monetize their services. They are backed by billions yet you rarely see an ad here or a "shop" there. Its as if they feel that its a bad thing to do. Its as if they feel that they are betraying the people using their services.

I feel that these services can survive with a little more push towards that. Then again I'm not the CEO or founder of that BIG company so I'm sure most would feel that my idea is not valid. It just frustrates me that you see so much potential (money-wise and service-wise) in a product/service yet it takes a long time to see those changes.

Re: Twitter Falls Below IPO Price as Concerns Mount Over CEO, Growth

#47

Post by bosdev »

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #24

Twitter should do group messaging and structured tags. I want to do things like: @friends Don't forget my birthday party on #(Aug 20, 8pm) at #SomePub or @friends Don't forget my birthday party! #invitation(Aug 20, 8pm, SomePub) And I want to be able to create a list where all invitations from people in the @friends group go And finance people could do things like Twitter has bottomed #buy(TWTR) And I want to be able…

This would be fantastically niche and tech-person-oriented, probably not the right move for the company as a whole. That said, nothing stops you from writing a bot on top of Twitter to power any of these interactions.

Re: Twitter Falls Below IPO Price as Concerns Mount Over CEO, Growth

#48

Post by mkr-hn »

Greenisus wrote: post #3

"At stake is whether Twitter [...] can become a mainstream platform instead of a niche forum favored by journalists and celebrities." I found that line interesting, because I often think of Twitter as a niche forum favored by technology workers and celebrities.

I use it to talk to people into the things I'm into. Mostly writers, furries (which has a billion subgroup interests), and artists. You wouldn't know these communities exist on Twitter from the logged-out home page, and the discovery tools don't help until you've already figured out the major players in a community.

Twitter should make the many different and largely unconnected communities a first-class part of the Twitter experience, rather than this informal thing they are now.

Re: Twitter Falls Below IPO Price as Concerns Mount Over CEO, Growth

#49

Post by zalzane »

Aleman360 wrote: post #25
rezashirazian wrote: post #22

Twitter hasn't focused on anything else besides twitter. Facebook is taking on the mission of "connecting the world". Google has gone well beyond being only a search engine. Amazon has expanded into mobile, AWS and ... Twitter, on the other hand, is still pushing the same product.

Taking a step back, what's the advantage to society of every company growing into a conglomerate? Why not just let a company live and die on its core business? Do we really want to allow all that power to be consolidated into company boards and executives?

imagine if snapchat announced that they would start living and dying on their core business rather than try to expand

now you have a bunch of investors who are upset that they invested in a company at a 16 billion dollar valuation that has jack diddly squat for income and has no promise of some magical "over the horizon" way to monetize

Re: Twitter Falls Below IPO Price as Concerns Mount Over CEO, Growth

#50

Post by therobot24 »

ohitsdom wrote: post #34
mikegioia wrote: post #29

To me the problem with Twitter lies solely with what Twitter's logged-out homepage looks like. I don't know what it's trying to be but asking me to sign up, browse categories (?), and read top celebrity posts is not it. Why is logged-out Twitter not a search engine? They have up-to-the-second thoughts from their users about everything and it's the first place I go when a site is down, or some news story is breaking.…

This. I get that they want sign-ups, but it's hard to sell the service with that page.

but would a search engine approach be any more effective at conversions? I use google and wikipedia, but it doesn't mean i have a blog or edit.
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