Twitter Falls Below IPO Price as Concerns Mount Over CEO, Growth • Hacker News Board

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

#81

Post by getdavidhiggins » Thu, Aug 20, 2015, 9:15 PM UTC

busterarm wrote: post #27

I've been short on Twitter from the get-go, I just didn't think it would take this long. This doesn't mean I'm anti-Twitter - I would actually prefer that it stay the niche platform for journalists/celebrities/activists. I don't know the business strategy to make sure that is viable, but I don't want it to be a mass-market product (except in terms of consumption)...the signal to noise ratio is so much better than oth…

That's why I wrote ‘Twitter Should Be A Public Utility’ http://blog.higg.im/2015/06/12/on-twitter/ For me the disconnect was that Twitter failed and partially succeeded in making Twitter what I call 'plumbing', or a sort of duct tape for the web. If microblogging had a stack similar to TCP/IP that could be fundamental to how the web operates, then they missed that boat repeatedly.

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

#82

Post by mkr-hn » Thu, Aug 20, 2015, 9:52 PM UTC

joaq wrote: post #64

ohitsdom wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really hard to sell/explain to the uninitiated because it's a diverse platform. Even my twitter feed is very diverse- breaking news and headlines from the beat writers for my favorite teams, activists and protesters covering police brutality, and developer blogs. With this mix, my twitter feed varies greatly. Unrest in Ferguson? Breaking news from the ground. Microsoft Build conference? Latest in tech from Redmo…

No, I've tried it. I've really tried to like it, but it just didn't click with me. I know it's perfect for others, but it can never reach the growth of a platform like Facebook that is more universally liked. That's pretty much my point.

You sound like someone who dislikes Reddit because they think the defaults are all there is. Twitter could do a better job helping people discover their interest communities, but Twitter is more than the gossip-focused logged out home page.

You need to look deeper if you think it has nothing for you.

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

#83

Post by natecavanaugh » Thu, Aug 20, 2015, 9:53 PM UTC

Is there anyone else who hates Twitter because of its 140 character limit and overall focus on broadcasting rather than sharing? For the 140 character limit, I get the historical SMS reasons and that it helps you "focus" your content, but taking 10 minutes to squeeze a thought in that turns from something half interesting to "bc u r 4 the GPL" or whatever. Sure MAYBE I could reword things a little denser, but a tweet should be somewhat in the moment and nothing takes me out of it like editing to some arbitrary limit. As for the aspect of people liking smaller messages, they can do what FB does and hide behind a "Read more" link.

Overall, Twitter feels like being in a crowded bar. Lots of noise, not many conversations.

This could all just be me, though...

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

#84

Post by fizx » Thu, Aug 20, 2015, 9:53 PM UTC

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 was going to be a thing. It didn't happen for reasons. http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/08/twitter-annotations/

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

#85

Post by teaneedz » Thu, Aug 20, 2015, 9:58 PM UTC

sreyaNotfilc wrote: post #46

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. Fro…

The problem is that Twitter is trying to monetize like most with ad-tech at a time that many are becoming ad adverse. The rise of ad blockers should be a wake up call for such monetization efforts. Twitter is placing ads everywhere now. Auto play videos, promoted ads, a jumbled UX, and product decisions springing from a want-to-be-like-Facebook mindset are just damaging the brand especially with the lack of strong product leadership that exists (which shows in the official app). It's all about monetization and listening to advertisers who don't have UX chops.

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

#86

Post by teaneedz » Thu, Aug 20, 2015, 10:08 PM UTC

natecavanaugh wrote: post #83

Is there anyone else who hates Twitter because of its 140 character limit and overall focus on broadcasting rather than sharing? For the 140 character limit, I get the historical SMS reasons and that it helps you "focus" your content, but taking 10 minutes to squeeze a thought in that turns from something half interesting to "bc u r 4 the GPL" or whatever. Sure MAYBE I could reword things a little denser, but a tweet…

It's what makes Twitter, well Twitter. I love the 140 char limit because it enforces brevity and aids quick consumption. That's me.

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

#87

Post by udev » Thu, Aug 20, 2015, 10:55 PM UTC

Many here comment just on sub-IPO price of shares.

The problem is bigger. As per Financial Times, there is a larger shift in investor mood towards Twitter. It seems that there are many who intend to short Twitter indicated by the amount of "borrowed" shares.

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

#88

Post by theklub » Thu, Aug 20, 2015, 11:16 PM UTC

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.…

I think its actually because you don't need Twitter to get the information that is there. Anything worth knowing that happens on Twitter is on every other main stream outlet. They have a unique problem in that powerful people use their platform but anyone can get that information and re-post it anywhere. Probably for that reason I've signed up for Twitter a few times and both times lasted no longer than a week, realizing it just isn't useful to the normal person.

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

#89

Post by freehunter » Thu, Aug 20, 2015, 11:49 PM UTC

mkr-hn wrote: post #72

freehunter wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When was the last time you saw a business with nothing but an Instagram profile, or saw Instagram referenced on the news, or cited in a paper, or used for a press release? It's not about active users, it's about how it's used.

Everyone had an AOL keyword. AOL isn't dead, but it fell hard. Ubiquity isn't enough.

Are you saying AOL wasn't mainstream? The Internet might have been niche as a whole, but out of that, AOL was as mainstream as it got. AOL was synonymous with Internet, like Facebook and Twitter are synonymous with social media.

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

#90

Post by mattzito » Fri, Aug 21, 2015, 12:28 AM UTC

adventured wrote: post #65

therobot24 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That prompts a question as to whether Twitter can best grow its future value more through user signups / conversions, or through maximizing one-way consumption as a broadcast medium. I read the nytimes.com all the time. They have no idea who I am and never will. I'll never signup for an account. They still get to feed me ads. I consume ESPN one-way. They have no idea who I am and never will. It's worth $50 +/- billio…

How do you read nytimes "all the time" with the paywall?

Edit: I'm confused by the downvotes. I wasn't trying to turn it into a discussion about whether paywalls are right or wrong, I was just drawing out that either the parent was not reading nytimes all the time, or they were evading the paywall, or they were paying for access. They're talking about how Twitter should get value from giving readers access and using nytimes as an example - but it seems like a terrible example, given that nytimes actively tries to prevent people from reading more than 10 articles/mo for free.