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Twitter Falls Below IPO Price as Concerns Mount Over CEO, Growth

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Re: Twitter Falls Below IPO Price as Concerns Mount Over CEO, Growth

#121

Post by jacobwcarlson »

rdl wrote: post #106
shostack wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've long wondered this. I haven't followed the evolution of Twitter's homepage, but I'd be really shocked if they hadn't tested this to death. The thing is, this keeps causing me to miss moments to engage with them. Someone posts a link, I find something on a website, etc. that go to Twitter? BAM! SIGN-UP NOW OR LEAVE! While I do of course have an account, if I were a non-user, I'd keep thinking "why would I sign-up…

Three answers, one of which makes me feel shamefully too much of an asshole. 1) I think optimizing the naive-to-twitter experience is something which can't really be done through incremental A/B testable changes. 2) They have had technical capability limits which prevent them from surfacing great content for users based on what anyone else would call "ad tech". These are both technical and organizational/philosophica…

On Facebook you're generally connected to people you know in real life. So if a new person joins Facebook and connects with you, the FB recommendations are likely people the new person also knows. You frequently follow people on Twitter you only know from Twitter. Even if they follow you back, your friend just signing up may not know who the hell they are. So recommendations are more difficult.

Re: Twitter Falls Below IPO Price as Concerns Mount Over CEO, Growth

#122

Post by nosuchthing »

rdl wrote: post #109
nosuchthing wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a delicate mix of both. Ello caused a mass migration away from Facebook but new users had difficulty understanding the Ello UI, and eventually after the hype simmered, people generally stuck with Facebook as their main network interface. There was also much talk around the time Whatsapp was acquired by Facebook.. people were eager to find alternatives and could easily migrate. I can't imagine Twitter being aroun…

"A mass migration"? A lot of people signed up for accounts (curiosity, namespace landrush) then did ~nothing.

Maybe it was different for your social circle(s)..?

Many of my friends were active on Ello for a few weeks. It catered mostly to original content producers and artists, so most normal people who simply want to repost news articles and music videos were deterred from being tossed into the "noise" category.

Re: Twitter Falls Below IPO Price as Concerns Mount Over CEO, Growth

#123

Post by rdl »

jacobwcarlson wrote: post #121
rdl wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Three answers, one of which makes me feel shamefully too much of an asshole. 1) I think optimizing the naive-to-twitter experience is something which can't really be done through incremental A/B testable changes. 2) They have had technical capability limits which prevent them from surfacing great content for users based on what anyone else would call "ad tech". These are both technical and organizational/philosophica…

On Facebook you're generally connected to people you know in real life. So if a new person joins Facebook and connects with you, the FB recommendations are likely people the new person also knows. You frequently follow people on Twitter you only know from Twitter. Even if they follow you back, your friend just signing up may not know who the hell they are. So recommendations are more difficult.

Absolutely - Twitter has a harder problem to solve. Facebook also capitalized on the benefits of rich media earlier (biggest photo site in the world, now borging YouTube).

Re: Twitter Falls Below IPO Price as Concerns Mount Over CEO, Growth

#124

Post by mbesto »

> Noto struck a critical tone, saying user growth won’t improve until the service boosts its appeal to a bigger market and that product improvements and marketing so far have met with minimal success.

This is going to sound anecdotal, but still feel is telling: until my parents and my co-workers (enterprise IT professionals) see the benefit in adopting Twitter, then Twitter will forever be in limbo. I fear the same for reddit. Neither service has a product that supports a wide enough appeal to be considered for that demographic, and they are effectively the last mile in this equation.

Re: Twitter Falls Below IPO Price as Concerns Mount Over CEO, Growth

#125

Post by panabee »

Twitter owns unique and compelling content. Lots. Yes, there is lots of junk, but there is also lots of junk on the web. The challenge is surfacing and distributing great content, and this is where Twitter should focus: maximizing reach and curating content.

Instead of forcing users to come to Twitter, Twitter should go wherever users are. Bring Twitter’s amazing content to them, wherever users are, through partners and syndication. Get people hooked as consumers before worrying about conversions. The upside is much cheaper user acquisition by piggybacking on media habits rather than breaking them. The downside is less revenue and possibly less loyalty, at least in the near term.

Media distributors like HuffPo and Yahoo boast massive audiences but need interesting content. Twitter can supply the content while Yahoo and others provide the users and sell ads. Both sides share revenue.

Outsourcing user acquisition to Yahoo and distributors doesn’t endanger Twitter. Twitter and only Twitter can produce this content, and since the content is unique, there is no risk of Yahoo swapping out Twitter for another company.

Put another way, syndication only strengthens Twitter as a product. Syndication expands the audience for tweets and deepens the incentive to publish via Twitter, which in turn generates more content and attracts more users, which in turn attracts more publishers. Syndication feeds a virtuous cycle.

The second piece, curating content, requires doing more to help individuals find and consume interesting tweets, and helping partners find and present interesting tweets. There is lots more Twitter could do, both with man and machine, in this area.

Maybe Twitter's greatest sin is not being Facebook, but it shouldn't be. There is enormous potential in helping people connect with others and enjoy content based on interests (Hi Reddit), not friendships. Many people, especially those on Wall Street and in the media, need a foil for Facebook, but hopefully the next CEO is not among them.

Twitter is a special company with special potential.

Re: Twitter Falls Below IPO Price as Concerns Mount Over CEO, Growth

#126

Post by tacone »

mikegioia wrote: post #29

To me the problem with Twitter lies solely with what Twitter's logged-out homepage looks like. I don't know what it's trying to be but asking me to sign up, browse categories (?), and read top celebrity posts is not it. Why is logged-out Twitter not a search engine? They have up-to-the-second thoughts from their users about everything and it's the first place I go when a site is down, or some news story is breaking.…

I fully agree.

If I remember correctly they recently announced a public homepage, and said they will be slowly rolling it out in the US.

My honest guess is they are freaking scared to change their website.

Another problem with a public homepage is scrapers. It is something they seem to be very careful about.

Re: Twitter Falls Below IPO Price as Concerns Mount Over CEO, Growth

#127

Post by brainflake »

mandeepj wrote: post #19

At one point Facebook's stock also fell below IPO price. It happens. I hope they will come back like FB.

It's not really the same... Facebook had a botched IPO where the price tanked immediately, but then recovered after a few quarters and their earnings started rolling in.

Twitter has had consistently bad quarters, whether through poor earnings or over promising on their projections. But in one way or another they are not meeting expectations.

Re: Twitter Falls Below IPO Price as Concerns Mount Over CEO, Growth

#129

Post by digisth »

hkmurakami wrote: post #118
digisth wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully, they'll reconsider some of those policies now. We know the data (including certain event data, like favoriting, like you say) is probably their most valuable asset, but opening the valve on it a bit more would be in everyone's interest, I think.

What can they do to regain the lost trust though, even if they do open the gates to the city again?

Some ideas: make public commitments to better developer-related policies that they promise to not renege on, outreach, reopen formerly closed APIs, lower-cost API plans so that incentives with small and medium-sized developers/companies are better aligned (developers pay something so Twitter doesn't feel like all value is being sucked out of it for free, less likely to shut things down.)
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