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Twilio looks better from afar

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Re: Twilio looks better from afar

#31

Post by josh2600 »

pla3rhat3r wrote: post #28
tehwebguy wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if you take out the competitor factor the article was really about their opinion on Twilio's status as a company. I expected an article talking about supposedly bad cancelation or privacy policies, something like that. Pretty bad headline.

I see he changed the headline. Pretty funny. Not sure how this person has any insight on Twilio financials. It'd be interesting to get this person's own background posted on this space. I think it would pull back the veil of ignorance displayed in his blog post.

I don't think anyone would try to argue that Twilio is profitable. They spend a lot of money and while they're going to move 500M minutes this year, those minutes are not free.

The author makes several valid points but undermines the overall critical nature with what appear to be non-sequiturs. If this article was a frank accounting of Twilio's position with some postulative math about their sustainability, I don't think anyone would've objected. The issue was the accusations, most of the content is factually correct (Twilio did raise a lot of money and continues to spend a lot of money).

What we have are two different world views, and it's not clear yet who is correct.

Re: Twilio looks better from afar

#32

Post by swohns »

While I don't 100% agree with the piece, our team just stopped using Twilio and is migrating over to MoGreet beacuse of their MMS capabilities. We already miss Twilio's strong community, but MoGreet has been incredibly responsive and supportive.

Re: Twilio looks better from afar

#33

Post by pla3rhat3r »

josh2600 wrote: post #31
pla3rhat3r wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see he changed the headline. Pretty funny. Not sure how this person has any insight on Twilio financials. It'd be interesting to get this person's own background posted on this space. I think it would pull back the veil of ignorance displayed in his blog post.

I don't think anyone would try to argue that Twilio is profitable. They spend a lot of money and while they're going to move 500M minutes this year, those minutes are not free. The author makes several valid points but undermines the overall critical nature with what appear to be non-sequiturs. If this article was a frank accounting of Twilio's position with some postulative math about their sustainability, I don't t…

Don't get me wrong I think every company has it's issues. Some of the companies you would think are the most stable are some of the most chaotic. However, there aren't too many instances where an article is taken seriously when it's written by a competitor. The fact that Johnny is writing this article while still working at a competitor means this article is meaningless. It holds no water. It comes off as someone who just wants to slam his competitor. If he wants to legitimize this article, talk about the challenges they face. Talk about the problems they've had in the past. Without it, it's a puff piece. He might as well have published this in the Sun.

Re: Twilio looks better from afar

#34

Post by josh2600 »

mpermar wrote: post #29
robbiet480 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I say "Tropo is failing" and I mean that their adoption rate is much lower then Twilio is. I'm sure Voxeo has tons of money to throw at Tropo until they run out. I haven't heard of 2600hz before, great name. I'll check it out!

I am curious here. Is there any place to check Twilio or Tropo adoption rate? I'd love to get some numbers.

Twilio has like ~150,000 devs in ~4 years, Tropo has like ~300,000 devs in ~16 years. Those are the numbers I hear thrown out, but I'd love to get some harder details.

Re: Twilio looks better from afar

#35

Post by lbarrow »

evan_ wrote: post #27
lbarrow wrote: post #10

The gist of the post is that Twilio is losing money, losing talent, and getting desperate. I don't see why the author couldn't have just said that instead of picking a sexist blog post title -- he didn't even use the girlfriend metaphor beyond the headline. Edit: They've changed the title. Cool!

What was the title?

"Why Twilio is like like your worst girlfriend" or something along those lines.

Re: Twilio looks better from afar

#36

Post by ryanwaggoner »

josh2600 wrote: post #25
ryanwaggoner wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that chart leaked? Looks like just an outside estimate by Business Insider: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-03-06/research/3112...

That's what I get for assuming blogs are correct. Thank you for posting the original article, I'll edit my post above to reflect this. Thanks!! Oops, too late to edit, guess my mistake has to rest in stone :/.

No problem, I only found the original because I was googling around trying to find some interesting commentary on the "leak". In particular, why do transaction costs grow so much faster than revenue? That almost implies that they're going to be processing many more transactions at lower average cost per transaction, so they'll end up paying a higher percentage of the total in fees?

Re: Twilio looks better from afar

#37

Post by josh2600 »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #36
josh2600 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what I get for assuming blogs are correct. Thank you for posting the original article, I'll edit my post above to reflect this. Thanks!! Oops, too late to edit, guess my mistake has to rest in stone :/.

No problem, I only found the original because I was googling around trying to find some interesting commentary on the "leak". In particular, why do transaction costs grow so much faster than revenue? That almost implies that they're going to be processing many more transactions at lower average cost per transaction, so they'll end up paying a higher percentage of the total in fees?

My theory is that the additional distribution from their deals with Visa and Starbucks didn't come with the same business terms they're able to negotiate independently.

One small biz negotiating with Square versus the gigantic morass that is Visa. Chances are Visa will have a more dominant negotiating position.

Re: Twilio looks better from afar

#38

Post by josh2600 »

swohns wrote: post #32

While I don't 100% agree with the piece, our team just stopped using Twilio and is migrating over to MoGreet beacuse of their MMS capabilities. We already miss Twilio's strong community, but MoGreet has been incredibly responsive and supportive.

Seen them before. What made you go with them? Their lack of disclosed pricing threw me off... I couldn't seem to find any info on their cost structures.

Re: Twilio looks better from afar

#40

Post by bevenky »

pratfall wrote: post #2

I friggin hate Twilio, and I kick myself for ever getting suckered into using it. I'm down to a single account and a single line in, but I need to port it off, and Google doesn't care to port Twilio numbers off to GV. If Twilio could do something other than drop calls to PSTN (I mean here, make a fuggin VoIP call), I'd be singing a totally different song, but it's a one-trick pony.

Try Plivo.com, we allow VoIP/SIP Calls. I am one of the founders of Plivo. Drop us a note at support@plivo.com and we will help you out.
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