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Twitpic is shutting down

blog.twitpic.com

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Re: Twitpic is shutting down

#61

Post by pchristensen »

bambax wrote: post #49
jenius wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Twitter doesn't give a fuck about developers now that they have sufficiently used them to build their platform and brand. I really hate that this is the standard model for building startups these days. Make a free service, grow your userbase using investment money and by encouraging developers to build on your platform, then once users and developers are dependent on the platform, start littering it with ads, selli…

I completely agree with you, but for the use of the word "dependent". What user is dependent on Twitter? Seriously? Can't one stop tweeting in an instant without any ill effect on her life? For developers it's a different story -- but they should know better.

Aside from people with huge audiences and Twitter-related businesses, anything you choose to use and incorporate into your life is at least somewhat of a dependency, even in the presence of substitutes.

For example, I love Chick-fil-A sandwiches. When I moved, the closest Chick-fil-A is now far away. I was dependent on Chick-fil-A, and I'm less happy without it, even though I have missed no meals and probably eaten healthier in its absence.

All kinds of things are like this - if emacs went away, I could learn vim. If my apartment building went condo, I could find another place to live. If my favorite TV show got cancelled, I would find something else to watch, read a book, etc. But those are all things I chose to use, and taking any of them away would reduce my welfare by definition, even if only a little bit.

Re: Twitpic is shutting down

#62

Post by robert_tweed »

daigoba66 wrote: post #43
pionar wrote: post #28

Two lessons: 1. Don't base your entire business on another business' product. Especially one that has had such a hostile relationship with third parties. When the other business decides to discontinue your access to its service, or otherwise change things, or basically copy what you do under their own brand, you're screwed. 2. Don't create a similar name that will give you trouble in trademark disputes. (Seriously? T…

> Don't base your entire business on another business' product. That is a terrible generalization. That pretty much covers every ISV ever. And large companies like Microsoft, Google, and Apple all have a history of "Embrace, extend, and extinguish" when it comes to closing out 3rd parties. However I think your point is valid for companies like Twitter, and to a slightly lesser extent Facebook. These companies don't h…

Indeed, the obvious counter-example to that lesson is imgur.

Re: Twitpic is shutting down

#63

Post by squeaky-clean »

at-fates-hands wrote: post #27
IgorPartola wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My thoughts exactly. Why is the trademark so important to them? And as I read it, Twitter never demanded that they stop using the name, just that they do not apply for the registered trademark. This decision seems rash.

>>> My thoughts exactly. Why is the trademark so important to them? Because it would protect them from Twitter going after them for infringement on Twitter's trademarks. I'm sure Twitter knew they had no argument for the "Likelihood of Confusion" Test and TwitPic would've been granted its trademark in due time. From a legal perspective, it looks like Twitter felt if they got trademark protection, they wouldn't have a…

>I'm sure Twitter knew they had no argument for the "Likelihood of Confusion" Test and TwitPic would've been granted its trademark in due time.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but are you saying it's not confusing that TwitPic is not owned by Twitter? (At least from a legal standpoint)?

I always assumed Twitpic was owned by Twitter, and it seems many other HN members did too. I'm amazed they lasted more than a month with that name.

Re: Twitpic is shutting down

#64

Post by msvan »

I think the issue here is that Twitpic's business model is having people leave the main Twitter interface to take them to another domain, where Twitpic can extract advertising money from the impressions. Twitter has image previews these days, which offer a nicer user experience and keep users on the main Twitter site. With Twitter hosting images itself, it makes little business sense for them to continue letting Twitpic make ad money off a feature duplicated externally.

Re: Twitpic is shutting down

#65

Post by squeaky-clean »

ihuman wrote: post #31
pionar wrote: post #28

Two lessons: 1. Don't base your entire business on another business' product. Especially one that has had such a hostile relationship with third parties. When the other business decides to discontinue your access to its service, or otherwise change things, or basically copy what you do under their own brand, you're screwed. 2. Don't create a similar name that will give you trouble in trademark disputes. (Seriously? T…

I don't think those lessons apply well to this TwitPic scenario, since they have been breaking them for 5 years without any problem.

Isn't that worse? 5 years of effort, all gone. I'd much rather have a project of mine shut down after a week then to go half a decade before it is shut down for reasons beyond my control.

Re: Twitpic is shutting down

#66

Post by sp332 »

Here's a reminder to please donate to the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/donate/index.php They have tons of old twitpic pages! http://web.archive.org/web/20140304234132/http://twitpic.com... See that timeline at the top? You can go to any date and browse around.

And the Internet Archive is more than just the "Wayback Machine" that lets you browse old versions of websites. They have massive datasets of video, audio, and texts too - check out the examples on the homepage. And you can add your own collections now. https://archive.org/create/

They just finished ingesting 2TB of public Fotopedia photos before it went down. Do you know how much it costs to store a terabyte permanently? Not an offline backup, but accessible 24/7 forever? About $2,000! Power, cooling, redundancy, and especially dedicated people to keep it all going. https://archive.org/donate/index.php

Re: Twitpic is shutting down

#68

Post by josefresco »

driverdan wrote: post #25

I suspect Twitter's demand is the straw that broke the camel's back. I'm sure Twitpic use has declined significantly since Twitter introduced their own image hosting. The team has moved on to other projects so there's not much incentive to fight it.

Pretty big straw... Not many fully functional and profitable companies can handle a "Drop your trademark or we'll sue" legal demand from a company like Twitter.

Re: Twitpic is shutting down

#69

Post by poopsintub »

jkaljundi wrote: post #37

I wonder how well Twitpic is doing revenue and profits wise and how much that affected the decision? It's hard to believe only the patent issue is the cause here. Open closing down announcements are nice, but should list all the facts and circumstances, not try to spin it PR wise.

A 2010 interview with Mixergy, the founder Noah Everett stated: "TwitPic is generating $1.5 to $2 million in ad sales on an annual basis, with 70% profit margins. It was roughly similar revenue in 2012.

In interview last month, he said his other company, Pingly will revolutionize email. He's changing focus on something that has real revenue potential and possibly good VC?

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