Twitter Just Shut Down Ribbon’s Newly Launched In-Stream Payments Feature • Hacker News Board

Re: Twitter Just Shut Down Ribbon’s Newly Launched In-Stream Payments Feature

#11

Post by davidu » Wed, Apr 10, 2013, 8:43 PM UTC

I've often said that my platform is called the Internet.

Or as I said here: https://twitter.com/davidu/status/313826471019954176

The risk to sharecropping on another platform just seems too great to outweigh the audience / signup / integration / etc. benefits.

Re: Twitter Just Shut Down Ribbon’s Newly Launched In-Stream Payments Feature

#12

Post by fomojola » Wed, Apr 10, 2013, 8:43 PM UTC

Curious what happened here: the Twitter Cards Player options clearly require pre-approval by Twitter for custom cards. Did Ribbon present one thing when going through the approval process and then change the player after the release?

Re: Twitter Just Shut Down Ribbon’s Newly Launched In-Stream Payments Feature

#13

Post by tbrownaw » Wed, Apr 10, 2013, 8:48 PM UTC

So how did this happen? Did someone at Ribbon not bother to check the TOS? Did they check and just think they wouldn't get caught? The article says Ribbon is trying to contact Twitter to find out what happened, I'd think it would make sense to have somewhat closer relations with anyone who has that much power over your company, so you could find out before they shut you down.

Re: Twitter Just Shut Down Ribbon’s Newly Launched In-Stream Payments Feature

#14

Post by kloncks » Wed, Apr 10, 2013, 8:50 PM UTC

tbrownaw wrote: post #13

So how did this happen? Did someone at Ribbon not bother to check the TOS? Did they check and just think they wouldn't get caught? The article says Ribbon is trying to contact Twitter to find out what happened, I'd think it would make sense to have somewhat closer relations with anyone who has that much power over your company, so you could find out before they shut you down.

From our statement on our blog:

"We’ve had discussions with Twitter in the past, and are eager to find a way to work together."

Re: Twitter Just Shut Down Ribbon’s Newly Launched In-Stream Payments Feature

#15

Post by tealtan » Wed, Apr 10, 2013, 9:00 PM UTC

My guess would be that Twitter has had plans to offer the same functionality.

Re: Twitter Just Shut Down Ribbon’s Newly Launched In-Stream Payments Feature

#16

Post by arindone » Wed, Apr 10, 2013, 9:00 PM UTC

josh2600 wrote: post #4

Are you surprised? Why don't we all go back to AOL and Geocities. The problem with Twitter is that it is not clear exactly what their approach to their revenue problem might be. I understand they want to monetize their API but does that go hand-in-hand with quashing every potential competitor who happens to use the API with a modicum of success? I'm bearish about any company that builds a data warehouse on the basis…

But that's just hearsay and conjecture -- we don't know it was turned off for "profitability" reasons or whatever. In fact Ribbon's blog indicates that Twitter was very receptive to the idea: http://blog.ribbon.co/an-update-on-in-stream-payments-on-twi...

Further, we haven't heard Twitter's side to this -- was there a violation of the TOS that the Tech bloggers didn't catch (or bother finding the other side of the story?)

Essentially you're jumping the gun in saying that Twitter is two-faced ("They say they're open but they're really not") all based upon no data or concrete evidence.

Re: Twitter Just Shut Down Ribbon’s Newly Launched In-Stream Payments Feature

#17

Post by _red » Wed, Apr 10, 2013, 9:00 PM UTC

josh2600 wrote: post #4

Are you surprised? Why don't we all go back to AOL and Geocities. The problem with Twitter is that it is not clear exactly what their approach to their revenue problem might be. I understand they want to monetize their API but does that go hand-in-hand with quashing every potential competitor who happens to use the API with a modicum of success? I'm bearish about any company that builds a data warehouse on the basis…

Why don't they just charge for this? You want to setup an in-stream payment solution? Great here is the API - its .10 each time its called (or whatever).

Further, why does twitter make it hard to pay them for API use?

Re: Twitter Just Shut Down Ribbon’s Newly Launched In-Stream Payments Feature

#18

Post by sujal » Wed, Apr 10, 2013, 9:01 PM UTC

evan_ wrote: post #9

Here's the post about this on Ribbon's blog: http://blog.ribbon.co/an-update-on-in-stream-payments-on-twi...

The preview doesn't look anything like their final implementation. That preview looks like an actual movie player, while the final card screenshots I've seen look like regular content cards with a lot of custom branding.

This looks like a clever hack of the Twitter implementation of the Player card and not the intended use. The stream and content type attributes both are empty, for example. Does anyone know if this sort of implementation is what that card is supposed to allow?

Re: Twitter Just Shut Down Ribbon’s Newly Launched In-Stream Payments Feature

#19

Post by mbesto » Wed, Apr 10, 2013, 9:01 PM UTC

"News story at 11, major roadway cuts off local roadside merchants"

Re: Twitter Just Shut Down Ribbon’s Newly Launched In-Stream Payments Feature

#20

Post by meritt » Wed, Apr 10, 2013, 9:03 PM UTC

Twitter wants to validate each domain that has a card so they can approve & exert control. They cannot control what products a ribbon customer promotes via ribbon. If I wanted to sell illegal drugs or child pornography photographs, those would show up on twitter.com & twitter apps in a nice card-like experience complete with a 'Buy Now' button.

That's why they shut it down.