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Twitter may receive formal bid, suitors said to include Salesforce and Google

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Re: Twitter may receive formal bid, suitors said to include Salesforce and Google

#181
post #85

IMO, Twitter is the poster child for the tech bubble. They have users, which is their only claim to viability, but notably, they have never made a profit. Currently valued at around $10 billion with 350 million active users, that's about $29 per user. You'd be hard-pressed to find an investor so foolish that they would invest $29 in each of their users and hope to make it back if it were stated in those terms, but pe…

Agreed on poor finances. But Twitter has one thing that no one else has - they are in the center of the zeitgeist. Every political candidate is on Twitter. Every news network discusses Twitter happenings everyday. NFL broadcasts list players' Twitter handles. Half the commercials on TV advertise hashtags. South Park just did a whole episode about Twitter. The cost to embed your brand in the minds of Americans like th…

The way that Twitter has become so pervasive despite not really solving the profitability problem makes me think of how a lot of the original constructors of skyscrapers end up building icons and then losing their shirts and being forced to sell it to someone who ultimately sees it realize the initial promise.

Re: Twitter may receive formal bid, suitors said to include Salesforce and Google

#182
post #85

IMO, Twitter is the poster child for the tech bubble. They have users, which is their only claim to viability, but notably, they have never made a profit. Currently valued at around $10 billion with 350 million active users, that's about $29 per user. You'd be hard-pressed to find an investor so foolish that they would invest $29 in each of their users and hope to make it back if it were stated in those terms, but pe…

> If you find yourself thinking that Twitter is a company with any real value What about non-monetary value like playing a key role in 'Arab Spring'[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_and_the_Arab_Spri...

Because it's bullshit PR by Twitter.

Re: Twitter may receive formal bid, suitors said to include Salesforce and Google

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed on poor finances. But Twitter has one thing that no one else has - they are in the center of the zeitgeist. Every political candidate is on Twitter. Every news network discusses Twitter happenings everyday. NFL broadcasts list players' Twitter handles. Half the commercials on TV advertise hashtags. South Park just did a whole episode about Twitter. The cost to embed your brand in the minds of Americans like th…

Oddball idea: If all these news outlets, and other organizations, benefit from it, maybe they could finance it. The same way the Linux Foundation is sponsored by large tech companies.

This is a model that Line has taken, and had some success with (particular in parts of Asia and Europe).

Re: Twitter may receive formal bid, suitors said to include Salesforce and Google

#184
post #23

Google acquiring Twitter is actually the best end result here. Salesforce is probably the worst. Lots of people hate the idea of a Google acquisition, but I think it's well suited because: - Google learnt from its mistakes with Google+ and is eager to not repeat them - The company is a very different one now from years ago - Google doesn't want to mess up identity again, so that wouldn't be an issue - Google mostly j…

Good list, one thing you left off: Google is already showing realtime results from Twitter. They're well positioned in the deal because they know how many people click through

Re: Twitter may receive formal bid, suitors said to include Salesforce and Google

#185
post #23

Google acquiring Twitter is actually the best end result here. Salesforce is probably the worst. Lots of people hate the idea of a Google acquisition, but I think it's well suited because: - Google learnt from its mistakes with Google+ and is eager to not repeat them - The company is a very different one now from years ago - Google doesn't want to mess up identity again, so that wouldn't be an issue - Google mostly j…

I think FB acquiring Twitter is actually the best end result. Facebook has patience knows how to give independence and allow for the product to evolve. Instagram and WhatsApp are the best examples.

Zuck offered Twitter a lot back in the day, Twitter leadership at time severely disagreed w/ Mark's vision of the merge. Particularly how he wanted to use Twitter to complement FB's goal of logging personal matters and in some cases over-stepping ethical and privacy boundaries. I commend twitter for not giving in at that time

Re: Twitter may receive formal bid, suitors said to include Salesforce and Google

#186
post #85

IMO, Twitter is the poster child for the tech bubble. They have users, which is their only claim to viability, but notably, they have never made a profit. Currently valued at around $10 billion with 350 million active users, that's about $29 per user. You'd be hard-pressed to find an investor so foolish that they would invest $29 in each of their users and hope to make it back if it were stated in those terms, but pe…

Agreed on poor finances. But Twitter has one thing that no one else has - they are in the center of the zeitgeist. Every political candidate is on Twitter. Every news network discusses Twitter happenings everyday. NFL broadcasts list players' Twitter handles. Half the commercials on TV advertise hashtags. South Park just did a whole episode about Twitter. The cost to embed your brand in the minds of Americans like th…

> The cost to embed your brand in the minds of Americans like that would be far greater than $10B.

Just because something costs money doesn't mean it's valuable. Being at the center of the zeitgeist definitely seems like it would be profitable, but de facto it hasn't been for 10 years, so it probably just isn't.

Being in the center of the zeitgeist isn't a substitute for making a profit.

Re: Twitter may receive formal bid, suitors said to include Salesforce and Google

#187

I think Twitter's recent foray into becoming a content streaming source (see: NFL) is very interesting and a natural next step, albeit a late one. The user base is already there to essentially compete with Twitch and other streaming providers.

Why can't youtube live replicate this streaming service and give even more split ad revenue back to NFL, CBS, etc.??

Re: Twitter may receive formal bid, suitors said to include Salesforce and Google

#188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oddball idea: If all these news outlets, and other organizations, benefit from it, maybe they could finance it. The same way the Linux Foundation is sponsored by large tech companies.

No shit! They should charge companies and news agencies, and anyone representing companies per tweet(1k per tweet or similar). They provide a valuable service - why should they give it to corporations for free?

fb doesn't do that. Twitter can follow what fb does. Right now twitter is very light weight, un-cluttered. It can change UI/UX to advertise more. Of-course there has to be value for advertisers as well - which I think is there (350M users).

Re: Twitter may receive formal bid, suitors said to include Salesforce and Google

#189
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people I tend to agree with are just as prone to group think as conservative-leaning people. Hate grows in the absence of disagreement, and it doesn't stop at the echo chamber's walls.

So what do you actually want from a community then ? It seems like you don't want certain people in it, but at the same time you do want them in it. I'm not sure if I'm understanding it correctly.

I'm assuming he doesn't want a community with only people he doesn't like nor a community with only people he likes. So he wouldn't move to a service where all the people he dislikes moved.
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