Twitter Expected to Begin Layoffs and Stop Headquarters Expansion • Hacker News Board

Re: Twitter Expected to Begin Layoffs and Stop Headquarters Expansion

#221

Post by mahouse » Sat, Oct 10, 2015, 9:41 AM UTC

amix wrote: post #206

I think the general market could learn a thing or two from WhatsApp: 55 people powering a platform used by 800 million _active_ users across many different platforms. And WhatsApp has innovated, e.g. the new video and calling system works very well. I have often wondered what thousands of Twitter employees are doing all day long? Their platform and apps have been stale for a long time.

>I have often wondered what thousands of Twitter employees are doing all day long? Their platform and apps have been stale for a long time.

They are adding new complicated features that all users hate to "increase engagement".

Re: Twitter Expected to Begin Layoffs and Stop Headquarters Expansion

#222

Post by meerita » Sat, Oct 10, 2015, 9:43 AM UTC

thomasfoster96 wrote: post #152

jsprogrammer wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean? This is just a fact. The company existed to make a return for the owners. The owners exited with $16 billion. That was the motivation of the owners/employees, not $14 million in annual revenue.

The $14 million is what justifies the $16 billion.

No, it doesn't. I strongly believe there are many other important factors like user base, growth ratio and active users than define the real value.

Re: Twitter Expected to Begin Layoffs and Stop Headquarters Expansion

#223

Post by TheBlueDot » Sat, Oct 10, 2015, 10:00 AM UTC

Well, there goes my weekend/week.

As someone who joined Twitter recently this sucks. I left a great job to come work at Twitter because I believe in what they're building and now a few months in I might be looking again. :-(

To be fair, the first week I was asking myself what all of these people do. I wish the company had been more transparent with this but I understand why they can't start telling people there will be layoffs, people panic and worry like all 4000+ employees are doing now.

Think before you type a rude comment too, most Twitter people read HN and will see it. :-/

Re: Twitter Expected to Begin Layoffs and Stop Headquarters Expansion

#224

Post by collyw » Sat, Oct 10, 2015, 10:00 AM UTC

amix wrote: post #216

Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new video and calling system, innovation? Skype, Hangouts and Viber have had those features for years... I don't think WhatsApp introduced any innovation at all, its popularity is derived from network effects, together with the questionable practice of using phone numbers as public ID and automatically adding all your phone contacts as chat contacts without them having any say in the matter.

I am an active user of WhatsApp and their service is much more reliable than Skype or Hangouts. There's a reason why 800 million people are using it and it's not only because of network effects, it's because the base product and service is rock solid. Their innovation is evolution of WhatsApp past text messages. And in the end, nothing is a true innovation -- most things build on past ideas.

I bought an Ubuntu phone, and here its the netwok effect that stops my friends switching to Telegram or anything else.

Re: Twitter Expected to Begin Layoffs and Stop Headquarters Expansion

#225

Post by petercooper » Sat, Oct 10, 2015, 10:11 AM UTC

amix wrote: post #206

I think the general market could learn a thing or two from WhatsApp: 55 people powering a platform used by 800 million _active_ users across many different platforms. And WhatsApp has innovated, e.g. the new video and calling system works very well. I have often wondered what thousands of Twitter employees are doing all day long? Their platform and apps have been stale for a long time.

I mostly agree, but the scale of what Twitter is doing technically is very different.

Network size is not as important as how messages are distributed within it. Whereas most WhatsApp messages are one to one, on Twitter they're almost always one-to-very-many.

If 10000 Twitter users with 1000 followers each send a tweet, that's 10000000 messages hitting queues. 10000 WhatsApp users sending a single message each are likely to result in 10000-20000 messages (sometimes people have group conversations).

Re: Twitter Expected to Begin Layoffs and Stop Headquarters Expansion

#226

Post by sumedh » Sat, Oct 10, 2015, 10:12 AM UTC

Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #210

amix wrote: post #206

I think the general market could learn a thing or two from WhatsApp: 55 people powering a platform used by 800 million _active_ users across many different platforms. And WhatsApp has innovated, e.g. the new video and calling system works very well. I have often wondered what thousands of Twitter employees are doing all day long? Their platform and apps have been stale for a long time.

The new video and calling system, innovation? Skype, Hangouts and Viber have had those features for years... I don't think WhatsApp introduced any innovation at all, its popularity is derived from network effects, together with the questionable practice of using phone numbers as public ID and automatically adding all your phone contacts as chat contacts without them having any say in the matter.

Watsapp works for me without any issues and its so simple, even my mom could understand it pretty fast.

Skype sometimes hangs on my pc and on the phone. Both my pc and phone have a good configuration yet Skype does not play nice.

Re: Twitter Expected to Begin Layoffs and Stop Headquarters Expansion

#227

Post by TheBlueDot » Sat, Oct 10, 2015, 10:12 AM UTC

TheBlueDot wrote: post #223

Well, there goes my weekend/week. As someone who joined Twitter recently this sucks. I left a great job to come work at Twitter because I believe in what they're building and now a few months in I might be looking again. :-( To be fair, the first week I was asking myself what all of these people do. I wish the company had been more transparent with this but I understand why they can't start telling people there will…

Also, it's amusing yet disturbing the disconnect.

Just three days before this leak everyone was told we're doing well, we're going to grow and hire more people and build these great new things. They also had a big talk about leaks and then went on to show 4000+ people the full product plans for the next year. Then, sorry, we're firing a bunch of you. Oh yeah, don't leak anything we just told you. :-O

Re: Twitter Expected to Begin Layoffs and Stop Headquarters Expansion

#228

Post by rodgerd » Sat, Oct 10, 2015, 10:12 AM UTC

Tinyyy wrote: post #126

There's a popular meme "If you're not paying, then you're the product". I think an exception is " or they're just not making any money".

> There's a popular meme "If you're not paying, then you're the product".

Popular and irritating since (a) it's incomplete (if you're paying, you're increasingly product, too, since companies aren't going to leave rifling through your data as a way of making money alone), and (b) it's become a kind of astroturf ad campaign for certain companies.

Re: Twitter Expected to Begin Layoffs and Stop Headquarters Expansion

#229

Post by sumedh » Sat, Oct 10, 2015, 10:15 AM UTC

sdenton4 wrote: post #220

Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The new video and calling system, innovation? Skype, Hangouts and Viber have had those features for years... I don't think WhatsApp introduced any innovation at all, its popularity is derived from network effects, together with the questionable practice of using phone numbers as public ID and automatically adding all your phone contacts as chat contacts without them having any say in the matter.

Phone numbers as ID is actually a really important innovation. I worked in Kenya for quite a while, and found that many people had email accounts they had no idea how to actually access. Email-based authentication doesn't work for a considerable proportion of the world's population. But cell phones are pretty ubiquitous: This ease of authentication is a big part of why whatsapp is kicking ass in the developing world.

> they had no idea how to actually access.

My mom back in India finds email address and passwords confusing but she immediately understood watsapp and how to send messages to her sister in US.

Re: Twitter Expected to Begin Layoffs and Stop Headquarters Expansion

#230

Post by fizx » Sat, Oct 10, 2015, 10:17 AM UTC

TheBlueDot wrote: post #223

Well, there goes my weekend/week. As someone who joined Twitter recently this sucks. I left a great job to come work at Twitter because I believe in what they're building and now a few months in I might be looking again. :-( To be fair, the first week I was asking myself what all of these people do. I wish the company had been more transparent with this but I understand why they can't start telling people there will…

Ex-Tweep here. You'll probably be fine. You'll probably continue to do meaningful work at twitter. I hope they cut people who have done nothing for a long time, not people who joined recently.

If not, there is a vibrant alumni community who is happy to welcome you and help you network and adjust, even if you were only working at twitter for a week. If you don't find it, email me (in my profile) and I'll help you find it.

Good luck (but you don't need it)!