What are people's opinions on the most optimistic case for Twitter (the business)?
They get acquired by the Executive Branch of the US Government and relabeled "The Voice of Freedom"? :-)
This has a very 'China' vibe to it.
Twitter Shares Drop as Pace of Growth Slows
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Re: Twitter Shares Drop as Pace of Growth Slows
#22"The whole world is watching Twitter. While we may not be currently meeting everyone’s growth expectations, there is one thing that continues to grow and outpace our peers: Twitter’s influence and impact." https://medium.com/@jack/twitter-q416-earnings-call-4574b01e... I honestly don't see how they are growing in influence and impact. I'd say that if it weren't for POTUS tweets, most people wouldn't even notice any c…
I mean, that's exactly what they're talking about. You can't just exclude one of the most impactful topics of global discussion (US politics). The fact of the matter is Twitter has a tremendously disproportionate impact on US politics and US journalism, and by extension world affairs.
Re: Twitter Shares Drop as Pace of Growth Slows
#23What are people's opinions on the most optimistic case for Twitter (the business)?
Cut their staff by 75%, run a lean operation, stay profitable and be just an "average boring company".
Don't do anything and die a slow spectacular death.
Add more features and have their app to start competing with Snap, Facebook, WhatsApp, Medium... except I don't think they can pull this up.
I think the first choice is the best, get rid of Jack while at it, sure no Bozo CEO, but Jack needs to pick either Twitter or Square.
Re: Twitter Shares Drop as Pace of Growth Slows
#24Twitter's tendency to ban and censor is either part of the problem or a sign of desperation. Either way, not good.
But isn't Twitter's unwillingness to ban unless in instances of overwhelming PR part of the problem? (i.e. the harassment issue that has legitimately driven away users)
It may be the case that it is simply impossible to serve too large a diversity of users out of one central service. Even ignoring the proximal political issues that people are thinking of right this second that are centered in the US, there's a lot of cultures in the world, with a lot of social norms in active conflict with each other, and a lot of nations who have various interests in enforcing those social norms and whose interests appear to be growing rather than shrinking. For a similar example, it is increasingly difficult if not impossible to run an international backup service housed entirely in any one country... you must have the data housed in an acceptable jurisdiction for your customers and there is no one jurisdiction acceptable to everybody. It may the case that Twitter's current issues are not an anomaly, but a fundamental aspect of trying to run an impossibly large service. Going back to those "proximal political issues", they may not be an anomaly... they may simply be a specific instance of an inescapable general problem.
Facebook is facing similar pressures. Their valuation still seems to assume they've got a lot of growth potential, but what if this circle can't be squared? It isn't hard to imagine the possibility that not only has Facebook more-or-less grown as much as it can, give or take some stragglers, but that it may even have grown more than it can sustain, in which case it is grossly overvalued.
Re: Twitter Shares Drop as Pace of Growth Slows
#25Twitter is in the news all the time with POTUS, or something else. Talk show hosts like Fallon use it as a bit on his show. And yet it just can't grow. It's time to start charging the twitter faithful a WhatsApp style fee of say something small a year or monthly. I'd hate for twitter to go under.
Re: Twitter Shares Drop as Pace of Growth Slows
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Beyond POTUS, I've noticed a definite uptick in usage almost solely from politics. Lots more politicians engaging in this, and people realising they can talk politics through this medium. I don't know how you take advantage of that to pay your bazillion engineers though
On the flip slide, politicians have been using Facebook increasingly (especially Facebook Live) for the same reasons, which isn't good for Twitter.
Facebook Live is not good for Twitter in terms of Periscope - Twitter's acquisition in 2015. Otherwise, Facebook still rules the roost for short real-time fast status updates.
Re: Twitter Shares Drop as Pace of Growth Slows
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Beyond POTUS, I've noticed a definite uptick in usage almost solely from politics. Lots more politicians engaging in this, and people realising they can talk politics through this medium. I don't know how you take advantage of that to pay your bazillion engineers though
On the flip slide, politicians have been using Facebook increasingly (especially Facebook Live) for the same reasons, which isn't good for Twitter.
Hey, it's not a zero sum game, right? More social media usage across the board, even if some goes to a competitor (and even then, I subscribe to Twitter != FB so I don't think it's an issue)
Re: Twitter Shares Drop as Pace of Growth Slows
#28"Unfortunately, it’s a situation of investor indifference -- everyone is used to Twitter’s troubles by now.”
Could easily replace "Twitter" in this quote with a scary number of other public tech company names where investor indifference is going on.
I don't know all the reasons why we read this same fucking article every 3 months. I do think passivity in public markets and the rigged proxy voting schemes are letting bad things go on for too long. There is a fiduciary responsibility here. How long should a company and it's management get before you pull the plug and replace them. Maybe the next guy or girl will be worse than Jack. Who knows. But that doesn't mean he should have stayed this long.
Maybe we should learn from the President. 8 years max for CEOs. For better or worse. CEOs are people and other people can do the job. Get out. Stay on the board if you miss it.
Re: Twitter Shares Drop as Pace of Growth Slows
#29I was reading Twitter financials.
The income from operational activities is growing a lot (The news usually don't comment this), really good numbers, but as also the expenses. Selling/General/Admin. Expenses doubled, I suppose they are trying to find a way to make money, and they are doing it, but the expenses needs to stop growing. It also seems years ago they borrowed a lot of money to invest on firm, now they are paying constantly.
Impossible to know if this will be a good company to invest or not, but it is still very risky, as major disruptive IT companies.
https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3ATWTR&fstype=ii&ei=1X...
Re: Twitter Shares Drop as Pace of Growth Slows
#30I think, in a sense, Twitter is living up to its potential -- and it has a lot of potential.
What happens, however, when it doesn't live up to its benefactor's expectations?