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Twitter Expected to Begin Layoffs and Stop Headquarters Expansion

nytimes.com

41–50 of 414 posts

Re: Twitter Expected to Begin Layoffs and Stop Headquarters Expansion

#42
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's crazy that it makes sense a billion+ company would need that few people now

Well a lot of other people are saying "It's crazy that a company with that few people and that little profit can be worth that many billions." Hence Twitter's problem at the moment.

Somewhat curious if this is the beginning of the unicorn pop.

Re: Twitter Expected to Begin Layoffs and Stop Headquarters Expansion

#43
post #29
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 4100 employees for a service dedicated to moving around 140 character messages? Yeah, there might be a little fat to trim there. Absolutely! You could probably get a single rack to handle storage and broadcast of millions of tweets per minute, perhaps hook it up to a Teradata appliance to handle search and storage at that throughput. Throw it in a nice distributed database indexed by user. Then just another couple…

OK, I'm hearing a lot about hardware there but not seeing where thousands of people are needed to keep it all up. Again, WhatsApp -- 50 employees.

Whatsapp is an outlier in many ways and comparing them with any company will make that company seem bloated. As for the comparison, Whatsapp has no monetization model, no marketing and a simpler product.

Re: Twitter Expected to Begin Layoffs and Stop Headquarters Expansion

#44
post #24
post #9

4100 employees for a service dedicated to moving around 140 character messages? Yeah, there might be a little fat to trim there.

> 4100 employees for a service dedicated to moving around 140 character messages? Yeah, there might be a little fat to trim there. Absolutely! You could probably get a single rack to handle storage and broadcast of millions of tweets per minute, perhaps hook it up to a Teradata appliance to handle search and storage at that throughput. Throw it in a nice distributed database indexed by user. Then just another couple…

> recommends the most relevant ad

They're nowhere near relevant. I keep getting local-to-US ads, and I'm in UK (and geolocate as in UK too). Not as bad as showing alcohol ads to 5 year old children, but still pretty bad.

Re: Twitter Expected to Begin Layoffs and Stop Headquarters Expansion

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet.

Facebook has 3 properties which have more users than Twitter (Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram). Facebook itself has more active users than Google and has another property, Whatapp which is also close to or just over that billion user mark. And they are already reporting profits. I doubt they will go the way of Twitter.

Nothing lasts forever in tech. How will they monetize Instagram and WhatsApp? Don't show me users. Show me profits from those users if you want to count them.

Re: Twitter Expected to Begin Layoffs and Stop Headquarters Expansion

#47
post #29
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 4100 employees for a service dedicated to moving around 140 character messages? Yeah, there might be a little fat to trim there. Absolutely! You could probably get a single rack to handle storage and broadcast of millions of tweets per minute, perhaps hook it up to a Teradata appliance to handle search and storage at that throughput. Throw it in a nice distributed database indexed by user. Then just another couple…

OK, I'm hearing a lot about hardware there but not seeing where thousands of people are needed to keep it all up. Again, WhatsApp -- 50 employees.

In 2014, WhatsApp reportedly made $14 million in revenue. By comparison, Twitter made $479 in revenue in just Q4 2014. I think company size generally scales super-linearly with revenue, so a total staff in the thousands seems reasonable for a post-IPO company.

Are you suggesting that WhatsApp's model of organization is the norm for a sustainable organization? I think it's a clear outlier in many respects.

Re: Twitter Expected to Begin Layoffs and Stop Headquarters Expansion

#48
post #4

I'm sad for my friends at Twitter but, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise.

Is indeed sad for the people that are let go, but at least the market is hot and they will probably find new jobs soon.

That is true if the layoff is specific to Twitter and not a harbinger of a general downturn

Re: Twitter Expected to Begin Layoffs and Stop Headquarters Expansion

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook has 3 properties which have more users than Twitter (Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram). Facebook itself has more active users than Google and has another property, Whatapp which is also close to or just over that billion user mark. And they are already reporting profits. I doubt they will go the way of Twitter.

Nothing lasts forever in tech. How will they monetize Instagram and WhatsApp? Don't show me users. Show me profits from those users if you want to count them.

True, but thus far Facebook has responded well to existential threats by buying companies like Instagram, WhatsApp, etc.
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