Twitter misses ad revenue and user growth estimates • Hacker News Board

Re: Twitter misses ad revenue and user growth estimates

#281

Post by masswerk » Thu, Feb 10, 2022, 9:32 PM UTC

atorodius wrote: post #178

meerita wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What killed me it was Twitter killing developers apis: no more interesting apps than theirs. It sucks big time. They're also screwing the chronology, sometimes you get the latest tweets (most interesting) and sometimes they switch you to Recommended, which, normally, it sucks. Let me browse chronologically as it was in the old days.

I recently wondered about this, from another angle. In a way it was "weird" that they had an API, given our times. I.e., it was different: imagine if FB/Instagram/WhatsApp had an API. (I think it would be awesome, but it puts into perspective that it was weird that they had one imo)

Back then, free APIs and mashups based on them were the hot thing. (Free geolocation resolvers, Google hat a free search API, Bing as well, FB had one, too, free weather forecasts APIs, etc., etc.) You couldn't be a trendy start-up without providing one. Things have changed a lot since.

PS: I keep a few selected apps from this era on my phone. Once a year I open them and admire them in their data-less beauty. (Favourite one: Partly Clouded) Let's call it software shinto.

Re: Twitter misses ad revenue and user growth estimates

#282

Post by scarface74 » Thu, Feb 10, 2022, 9:32 PM UTC

screye wrote: post #274

scarface74 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since when wasn’t someone who is supposedly a billionaire not part of the “elite”?

The cultural elite is completely different from having money. It is the same reason that Trump was ridiculed for putting ketchup on steak or why journalists/post-docs are willing to make pennies on jobs that grand them access the cultural elite. I give the example of Trump because he the clearest contrast that differentiates wealth from the elite. Phrases like 'Nouveau Riche' or 'Paise aaye, par aukaad nahi aaye' (mo…

Someone who owns private airplanes and golf courses aren’t part of the “cultural elite”? Before Trump’s conversion to a populist in 2016, he was very much part of the cultural elite and spent most of his time hanging out with celebrities and Democrats.

Re: Twitter misses ad revenue and user growth estimates

#283

Post by riffic » Thu, Feb 10, 2022, 9:33 PM UTC

djbusby wrote: post #103

woodruffw wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe we do: it's called ActivityPub[1], and it's what Mastodon and others use. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ActivityPub

Surprisingly difficult for Joe Public to get on - how to solve that problem?

Running your own email server is pretty difficult but getting an email address somewhere doesn't seem to be a problem with the public anymore.

To answer "How to solve that problem?", I'd say don't worry a damn thing about Joe Public.

Re: Twitter misses ad revenue and user growth estimates

#284

Post by sneak » Thu, Feb 10, 2022, 9:34 PM UTC

cronix wrote: post #75

So I never created a Twitter account. Over the years, there are a few people that I liked to read their thoughts on Twitter, so I'd manually go to their wall and read occasionally. They're all verified. Over time, it became cumbersome to continue doing this and I thought I'd give in and create an account (on the website) so that these people were all easy to access from a single point. So I did, and went and immediat…

In addition, even when fully logged in, having given a phone number, they censor the search function on the site. Not just the tweets you can post - the search - the tweets that they allow to be posted but you are not allowed to read.

This is abhorrent to me and led to me deleting my account after a dozen years of use and double digit thousands of followers.

If you won't let me read it, don't let it be posted.

I will no longer donate my writing and attention to censorship platforms.

Re: Twitter misses ad revenue and user growth estimates

#285

Post by riffic » Thu, Feb 10, 2022, 9:35 PM UTC

agentultra wrote: post #229

It's the only social I use really but I've been looking into alternatives. Ever since Twitter decided to open up a crypto/web3 team and introduced NFT profile pics I'm out and won't support it... but as the only social I have to keep in touch with other open source contributors and projects I work on/follow it's going to take some time before I totally close my account. That being said, good recommendations are welco…

run a blog and connect with the Indieweb community.

Someone else mentioned Mastodon. If you don't want to run your own Mastodon server, but you have a WordPress site, use an ActivityPub plugin to connect with the wider network.

Re: Twitter misses ad revenue and user growth estimates

#286

Post by winternett » Thu, Feb 10, 2022, 9:35 PM UTC

meerita wrote: post #171

ProfessorLayton wrote: post #160

As a heavy twitter user who mostly enjoys it (I'm very particular of who I follow), I just don't understand what they've been doing all this time. Their product has been incredibly stagnant for years save for the occasional feature here and there and some styling. They've screwed over devs trying to build on their APIs and eroded all trust along the way. New features have been rolled out haphazardly, and they totally…

What killed me it was Twitter killing developers apis: no more interesting apps than theirs. It sucks big time. They're also screwing the chronology, sometimes you get the latest tweets (most interesting) and sometimes they switch you to Recommended, which, normally, it sucks. Let me browse chronologically as it was in the old days.

Chronological posts were the one thing making tools like twitter useful. The ideal that you could follow someone and see their minute-to-minute thoughts was refreshing.

In the age of bots and schedules posts, fake accounts and marginal content/reposts are rampant. Twitter to me now feels like a "dead body" repost zone where the only thing that grabs attention are snuff clips and pr0n.

Their overhead from all the volume is probably stratospheric, and they're scrambling to stop the hemorrhage of expenses over innovating now, so it's probably gonna take an entirely different platform to recapture the classic dynamic that Twitter once had.

Re: Twitter misses ad revenue and user growth estimates

#287

Post by Androider » Thu, Feb 10, 2022, 9:36 PM UTC

cheriot wrote: post #268

Androider wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple and Stripe are also set to commoditize the small business Point of Sale that is Square's bread and butter. iPhones were just announced to soon accept contactless payments directly, and probably also the next iPad will include the required NFC hardware.

The hardware is less important than the merchant account. The risk of charge backs means a small business accepting a credit card is effectively taking out a loan. Apple isn't going into that part of the value chain (so far).

Right, Apple is only providing the hardware and it requires to use a (partnered) processor, like Stripe, which was the example they used in their recent announcement. Stripe coincidentally sells chargeback protection as a service https://stripe.com/radar/chargeback-protection if that is a concern.

Re: Twitter misses ad revenue and user growth estimates

#288

Post by demosito666 » Thu, Feb 10, 2022, 9:37 PM UTC

rsync wrote: post #194

After all of these decades ... After talk/ytalk, .plan files, sysop chat, fidonet, usenet, livejournal/myspace/facebook ... I can't believe that the mass-adoption of threaded, text discussions looks like this ! What must non-technical, end user, always-online-generation think of this ? It's confusing, barely-usable garbage.

Yep, every time I'm linked to twitter (I don't have mobile app) I feel myself so old, because for the love of god I can't figure why anyone would use this for communication. Maybe the fact that I don't use it from mobile adds to this.

Re: Twitter misses ad revenue and user growth estimates

#289

Post by underwater » Thu, Feb 10, 2022, 9:38 PM UTC

beebmam wrote: post #240

lordnacho wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One could argue they filled out their niche. Took the VC money, made the thing global, does what it says on the tin. The world now has a broadcast-short-messages service that can be used by people to reach their audience. Unfortunately that's not enough, since these tech firms tend to be priced to eat the whole planet, thus requiring a lot more than going global with a little thing that works.

They're not even remotely priced at the magnitude to eat the whole planet. And yet, their market IS eating the entire world (except China, due to insular political reasons). That points to me like they're significantly undervalued.

What is Twitter's market? They seem increasingly like just another online community. Most of my feed is the same few Twitter influencers with high follower counts. The drama, conventions, and memes all make it feel insular and hostile to outsiders. Feels more like Tumblr than some global, open, platform.

Re: Twitter misses ad revenue and user growth estimates

#290

Post by elorant » Thu, Feb 10, 2022, 9:38 PM UTC

jakub_g wrote: post #196

kilroy123 wrote: post #139

Honestly? It's because their ads are trash. I know lots of marketing people and they all stay away from using them. Say what you will about Facebook and Instagram, their ads are better overall. There's been several times an Instagram ad showed up in my feed, and I said shut up and take my money. Nothing like that has ever happened on Twitter for me.

I've been thinking about this because it's true from my observation, and I wonder what's the main reason: - Is it because they are "not evil enough" compared to FB in tracking people? - Is it because they can't track people in the same way (FB pixel is _everywhere_ on the net, Twitter's code is also widespread but probably less?) - Is it because publisher tools are not as good as FB's? (in FB from what I know you can…

Twitter is not set up to know things about people in the first place. Your profile doesn't contain any personal information. Most of the interaction on Twitter is between users, while on FB it can be both users and companies with either ads or corporate posts making it into the feed. You click a post from a clothing company, Facebook will show you a relevant ad a week later. On Twitter on the other hand seems like companies never really bother advertising.