Twitter Shares Drop as Pace of Growth Slows • Hacker News Board

Re: Twitter Shares Drop as Pace of Growth Slows

#31

Post by taytus » Thu, Feb 09, 2017, 2:36 PM UTC

argonaut wrote: post #22

taytus wrote: post #2

"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.

Let's say that for some reason POTUS decides to start using facebook instead. Then what? Yes, I'm not denying the impact of those tweets, all I'm saying is that is just only ONE user driving the impact.

Re: Twitter Shares Drop as Pace of Growth Slows

#32

Post by alecco » Thu, Feb 09, 2017, 2:36 PM UTC

There you go, PC Bro CEO. Just read what he cares about: https://twitter.com/jack

Hemorrhaging top execs and alienating userbase.

Ironically, if it weren't for Trump's exposure the company would spiral into a circle-jerk cesspool like Tumblr.

Re: Twitter Shares Drop as Pace of Growth Slows

#33

Post by ako » Thu, Feb 09, 2017, 2:37 PM UTC

arethuza wrote: post #4

thebiglebrewski wrote: post #3

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"? :-)

Might be best solution for government if Facebook starts blocking 'alternative facts'.

Re: Twitter Shares Drop as Pace of Growth Slows

#34

Post by paulpauper » Thu, Feb 09, 2017, 2:37 PM UTC

minimaxir wrote: post #16

paulpauper wrote: post #12

Twitter'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)

but Twitter's bans tend to be quick and capricious and possibly automated, verses an agonizing PR decision

Re: Twitter Shares Drop as Pace of Growth Slows

#35

Post by samfisher83 » Thu, Feb 09, 2017, 2:38 PM UTC

Why don't they just put ads on their page like every other company? With all the embedded tweets as well as what the user subscribes to they know who the user is so they can show them relevant ads.

Re: Twitter Shares Drop as Pace of Growth Slows

#36

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Feb 09, 2017, 2:38 PM UTC

paulpauper wrote: post #12

Twitter's tendency to ban and censor is either part of the problem or a sign of desperation. Either way, not good.

[deleted]

Re: Twitter Shares Drop as Pace of Growth Slows

#37

Post by tdkl » Thu, Feb 09, 2017, 2:39 PM UTC

gigatexal wrote: post #25

Twitter 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.

Grow where ? Do people realize there are actual limits on growth because humans aren't infinite ?

Re: Twitter Shares Drop as Pace of Growth Slows

#38

Post by petercooper » Thu, Feb 09, 2017, 2:40 PM UTC

I'm not surprised. Their ad product is just not that good. I spend $ on FB and it works. On Twitter.. gee, you can pay $2 per follower you end up getting. Organic is so easy on Twitter that you don't need the ad product.

Re: Twitter Shares Drop as Pace of Growth Slows

#39

Post by icebraining » Thu, Feb 09, 2017, 2:40 PM UTC

grenoire wrote: post #21

arethuza wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_America

Re: Twitter Shares Drop as Pace of Growth Slows

#40

Post by andy_ppp » Thu, Feb 09, 2017, 2:41 PM UTC

thebiglebrewski wrote: post #11

andy_ppp wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's difficult to say; my guess is endless layoffs and a slow gradual slide into irrelevancy like Yahoo! - no-one is really interested who is young at arguing with strangers online. Do we know of any companies in tech (apart from Apple) who got big, stopped growing and managed to turn it around? Will it be an amazing purchase that saves them (like Apple did)?

Yeah! But...how hard is it to cut it down to real bare-bones staff and still somehow manage to have $120M in revenue and way less costs? Or is it mostly server and processing costs from how real-time their platform is?

"But...how hard is it to cut it down to real bare-bones staff"

I'm sure you'd lay off the right people but it's much much more difficult than you think because everyone appears to be doing stuff. Let's say 3/4 people need to go - reviewing that individually is a nightmare for morale and very time consuming.

It also never seems to happen - instead companies take the easier road and keep doing a small minimal amount of layoffs because the big one is almost impossible and might lead to whole pieces of the site stopping working.