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Twitter’s Chief Operating Officer Steps Down

nytimes.com

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Re: Twitter’s Chief Operating Officer Steps Down

#31

Post by justicezyx »

djloche wrote: post #11

Here is the takeway: "Mr. Rowghani has been selling Twitter shares heavily since May, when insiders were first allowed to sell after the company’s initial public offering in November. Last month, he sold 300,000 shares, worth about $10 million. And this month, he sold nearly 75,000 shares worth more than $2.5 million. He remains a major stockholder, however, owning about two million shares, according to his latest re…

Hmm... This does cast a shadow on Twitter's future. It's a shadow, so it does not have solid ground to back it, but it's a shadow, so it makes people nervous.

Re: Twitter’s Chief Operating Officer Steps Down

#32

Post by frostmatthew »

salgernon wrote: post #28
ForHackernews wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I've never understood the appeal of Twitter. Maybe many other people feel similarly? I read somewhere that the vast majority of Twitter accounts are bots or completely inactive.

I'm with you there. Every time I've tried to engage, it felt like a million conversations that had nothing to do with me and for which I had nothing to contribute. What is frustrating to me though: as an outsider that is not logged in to twitter, is that visiting the site almost forces you to log in before you can find anything. If you know you can go to twitter.com/search/ then fine, but you won't find that link on…

> For that matter, the twitter home page doesn't even tell you what it is, I guess at this point we're just supposed to know.

Well it does say "Start a conversation, explore your interests, and be in the know." so it does give some indication. But yeah I'm guessing not many people are landing on their home page having no clue what Twitter is.

Re: Twitter’s Chief Operating Officer Steps Down

#33

Post by numair »

I'm sorry, but you can't blame a talented operations guy (among the most talented in our industry -- he led the Pixar IPO) for Twitter's failure to innovate and grow. Especially when you factor in the constant absence of the guy who is supposed to be in charge of product, who spends more of his time tending to his overhyped payments company.

The lack of a transformational acquisition probably didn't make him very happy either, as it's hard to see how Twitter's current product mix moves the needle in any meaningful capacity.

Twitter's loss.

Re: Twitter’s Chief Operating Officer Steps Down

#34

Post by Macsenour »

Alupis wrote: post #25
sosborn wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter is the new water cooler. I don't use it, but I can see why some people do. Having said that, I really don't see how they will be profitable in the long term.

My company (like many many others) have tried advertising on Facebook, and other social networks (Twitter included). You pay a bunch of money to them, and get almost nothing in return. It's not nearly as effective dollar-for-dollar as using, for example, google advertising... or just investing in using Email Marketing and building a list. (I don't see how any social networks will be profitable long term).

I think specific social networks will be profitable. Such as a doctors social network, or golfers network. I think a larger catch all network has issues as we're all talking about here.

Re: Twitter’s Chief Operating Officer Steps Down

#35

Post by nrao123 »

djloche wrote: post #11

Here is the takeway: "Mr. Rowghani has been selling Twitter shares heavily since May, when insiders were first allowed to sell after the company’s initial public offering in November. Last month, he sold 300,000 shares, worth about $10 million. And this month, he sold nearly 75,000 shares worth more than $2.5 million. He remains a major stockholder, however, owning about two million shares, according to his latest re…

"There was, in fact, a question at a recent “tea time” — bi-weekly employee meetings with top execs — about Rowghani’s large sale of his shares. Those in attendance told me that Rowghani got up and told the audience that he was not thrilled to answer the question, but noted that he wanted the money to give to research to battle a disease that took his father’s life. It was an emotional address, said those present." http://recode.net/2014/06/11/twitter-mulling-shake-up-of-top...

Re: Twitter’s Chief Operating Officer Steps Down

#36

Post by cookiecaper »

rmason wrote: post #7

I adore Twitter but I am afraid the company is executing poorly. Here are a few examples: 1. I receive daily emails on my main account urging me to advertise. Or more properly I don't see them because I've marked them as spam. 2. Created an account for an event that never got used. Receive two emails every single day trying to get me to engage. You would think after over a year that they'd get the message I wasn't go…

You can bid whatever you want for followers. Twitter uses the same tactics as all auction-based advertisers and tries to tell you that you'll have to set prices at $4 per action to see any results, when in reality they'll happily take your 30 cents per action if that's all you're willing to give them. There's no fixed price attached to action acquisition, so for these guys it's all about what you can get someone to pay, and you get them to pay more by telling them several times that they need to pay more to see results.

Re: Twitter’s Chief Operating Officer Steps Down

#37

Post by cookiecaper »

rmason wrote: post #7

I adore Twitter but I am afraid the company is executing poorly. Here are a few examples: 1. I receive daily emails on my main account urging me to advertise. Or more properly I don't see them because I've marked them as spam. 2. Created an account for an event that never got used. Receive two emails every single day trying to get me to engage. You would think after over a year that they'd get the message I wasn't go…

I've bought ads on both Twitter and Facebook and find Facebook far more cost-effective. I find Google more cost-effective than either of them.

Re: Twitter’s Chief Operating Officer Steps Down

#39

Post by m0nastic »

ForHackernews wrote: post #17
yalogin wrote: post #13

Whats going on with Twitter? The stock is significantly down and they seem to be going through re-orgs frequently. Have they become stagnant? Its not going to go away but I don't know what else they can do to increase revenue or increase adoption.

Honestly, I've never understood the appeal of Twitter. Maybe many other people feel similarly? I read somewhere that the vast majority of Twitter accounts are bots or completely inactive.

I think people use Twitter for different things, but for me Twitter has completely replaced RSS, IM, and news. Unlike Facebook, where none of the people I follow have relevant interests to me, on Twitter I only follow people who post things I'm interested in.

Over time, I've learned to unfollow actual news sources, but instead I follow a collection of editors (who wind up performing a very useful curation function). I'll still follow links to actual news stories, but I never go to any news web pages directly anymore.

I'm pretty good about constantly pruning my follow list, as I actually read all of my timeline. (Most people seem to have decided that that is futile, and only occasionally read their stream).

Re: Twitter’s Chief Operating Officer Steps Down

#40

Post by autokad »

djloche wrote: post #11

Here is the takeway: "Mr. Rowghani has been selling Twitter shares heavily since May, when insiders were first allowed to sell after the company’s initial public offering in November. Last month, he sold 300,000 shares, worth about $10 million. And this month, he sold nearly 75,000 shares worth more than $2.5 million. He remains a major stockholder, however, owning about two million shares, according to his latest re…

how is selling his shares the takeaway and not resigning from his position?

it would seem that they mentioned the share selling because they feel that this was foreshadowing him leaving the company when he did it. it would seem that that share selling was not simple profit taking, even though I agree it would be sensible to sell shares and turn some of that 'net worth' into hard assets or reinvest it

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