Why all the Twitter hate lately?
by Stii
Is it just me, or is there a barrage of haters throwing stones at the little bird? And I’m not talking the usual Techcrunch comment trolls, I’m talking high profile suits.
First we have the “dooming” Morgan Stanley report(The report is in PDF format). The one written by a 15 year old intern. Now, don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying the young chap is incapable. Au contraire, read the report! It is not bad at all. What is shocking though is that the only thing said in the report about Twitter is:
On the other hand, teenagers do not
use twitter. Most have signed up to the service, but then just
leave it as they release that they are not going to update it
(mostly because texting twitter uses up credit, and they would
rather text friends with that credit). In addition, they realise that
no one is viewing their profile, so their ‘tweets’ are pointless.
Three sentences in a single paragraph of an entire report and the headlines spells doom for Twitter. What a lot of the Doomsayers do not realise is that MOST of Twitter’s userbase starts out this way. They register an account, then think “This is useless” and leave. They do not return for months. Eventually, though, they will revisit Twitter. That is how it was for me and a lot of other regular Twitter users I know of. The point these suits miss is this very significant paragraph:
Most have signed up to the service
A lot of these teenagers WILL return at some point. They should pay attention to the other interesting facts in that report…
The second article was a Reuters article. The headline reads: “Want to buy Twitter? As far as anyone knows the site has yet to earn a dime.” Now, there is no arguing that fact. No-one is disputing it. Yes, I can understand that there are very few people who would invest in something that has no plan to be profitable. Someone is funding it, so why is this such a big deal for everyone?! Why the hell does it concern people so much? It is not as if it is their own money or tax money that is being used to fund Twitter, is it? NEWSFLASH: Twitter turned down various very lucrative offers. Not that long ago either! So, Moneyweb et al, stop bothering yourself so much with how Twitter does or does not make money! If their money dries up, then we’ll start to worry… Okay?
I also registered a Twitter account – left it for a few months – then returned once I realized the value of the service.
Exactly. I think a LOT of people started that way, and even more would continue to start that way. Problem is big wigs don’t understand that, it seems.
Great post Stii! The irony of the whole saga is that all the haters still use Twitter themselves. Something that is often missed by people is the simple mechanics of the attention economy. Sure they’re not making cash money, but not a day goes past that somebody doesn’t ask me about Twitter. In my book they’re way ahead of a lot of other sites in the attention economy.
I’m sure we’ll see some premium Twitter tools soon enough…
The boy’s report may need to be taken with a pinch or bag of salt. As one of the thinkers on a social site said, the report may simply be the ideas of the boy as he interprets the use of twitter, or just as bad, his inner circle of friends. This would hardly make the report worth looking at. Of course, if he’d done a proper test with say, thousands of teens, then maybe it’s worth something.
Well, true! Exactly why it is upsetting that so many “reputable” news sources make such a big deal about it :/
Twitter is a bit fail though.
Why, Chris?
As much a lot of people have signed up, got bored, left and will eventually return…I still think that the main objective behind twitter has been lost at some point or other…
But it’s not that bad a place, I visit every once in a while myself.
this is a great post. i didnt know that twitter is not making money. Maybe they are using the same strategy that most bloggers are using. first increase the traffic and loyal following and then monetise it. its a nice service and i think that they have a long term agenda than letting bloggers spam on it :)
http://kenyantykoon.wordpress.com/
@Stii: Here here!
I agree with @Optimised Onion though – it’s a VERY subjective report that should be taken with a truck-load of salt. I am yet to create a Twitter account… If I do I want to actually use it