Twitter is on the Brink of Something
Michael Spencer
A.I. Writer, researcher and curator - full-time Newsletter publication manager.
Yep, Twitter is going to fire 10% of its staff, again! Jack's back, and Twitter is again in the spotlight. It appears the iconic company is at a bit of a crossroads.
Suitors Not Bullish
After many months of struggling to maintain usage numbers and revenue, Twitter had indicated (heavily promoted) that it was open to acquisition bids, with only one problem - nobody really wants to buy Twitter, at least none of the expected favorites.
With Salesforce backing out, their most promising acquisition company is no longer interested. Twitter, always the center of controversy, likely wasn't shiny enough for Disney.
Sales Push Hits Apparent Dead End
The tech giant, who just 2 months ago was speaking to the likes of Apple, Google, Disney and more, appears to have lost all prospective buyers for now with the pressure to perform to the only audience left that really matters, Wall Street. Has this bird flown too high?
Will Twitter be left for dead?
#FutureRunDown
End of an Era
It was recently announced that Vine is about to die, giving Twitter a more lean appearance attempting to tweet and stream its way to dreaded profitability.
Vine went on to say something important, it's going offline in the coming months.
Vine was an early pioneering of the comic video, though in 2016, many of us aren't familiar with it.
Twitter's challenge to compete with the likes of Instagram, Snapchat and more visual channels has never been more apparent.
Streaming Politics and NFL Games
With video and live streaming becoming more ubiquitous, Twitter must revive itself with Periscope, or perish too.
Twitter did quite successfully stream the presidential debates and now NFL games as well.
Twitter is somebody's Dyn (ner?)
Let's not forget the recent cyber attack, did effectively put Twitter unconscious for more than a few hours for some U.S and Canadian locations. Some analysts, even question if we should be worried for Apple now.
Twitter's numbers were't terrible, with an 8% increase over last year’s, as the company posted a strong adjusted revenue of $616 million.
Silicon Vines and RIP Memes
Back in June the company had nearly 4,000 employees, how low should we expect that to go, to lower potential acquisition costs?
Twitter purchased Vine for $30 million back in 2012 as part of its video strategy and had as many as 40 million users.
Creators on Vine primarily made humorous videos and primed us to the likes of Snapchat filters and the micro video onslaught.
Why Twitter's Failure is Sad
It seems we all have advice for what Twitter should do, but the reality is, even Apple hasn't used Twitter, with an absurd number of accounts inactive, passive or worse, bots.
In an age where third party platforms dominate media and content distribution, somehow Twitter was left in the dark about how to monetize itself.
Twitter remains the grass-roots voice of community and global conscience that appears to have a stronger power for social good than many other channels.
User Growth as a Key Metric
With a flat-line user base (up 10 million to 317 in the past year), it's ambiguity and authenticity, it can be argued, is actually what makes it beloved to its active users.
Snapchat brought the world disappearing stories, but nobody does real-time news or brings trends to the fore quite like Twitter.
What do you think, will Twitter die or rise from the ashes? How should Twitter pivot to survive?
Technical Translator & Proofreader at Datalab Slovenia
8 年Hm, in my opinion, Twitter should learn to analyse and gain insights from the vast amounts of unstructured data they posess (i.e. texts, charts, numbers, etc.). They are sitting on a goldmine - the only problem is that they are a) either not aware of it or b) ignorant or c) do not have a clue what or how to manage all this data. In the latter case, I am willing to help, i.e. turn unstructured data into meaningful insights. The only problem I see here is that the right infrastructure for this job is so 'teuer' (i.e. expensive) that the Twitter CEOs will probably think twice before jumping into such an investment.
Enterprise Business Analysis & Transformation Programs focused on Return on Invested Capital (ROIC).
8 年Bankruptcy?
Expert Generalist ? Founder ? 0 to 1 ? Advisor ? human well
8 年The most interesting thing about Twitter right now is the seemingly palpable tension between user experience and investor relations. Prioritize profitability (and changes) and alienate your user base, or remain loyal to the user experience at the expense of losing investors. Tough line to maintain.
Independent Business & Strategy Advisor
8 年Noting facebook and also linkedin are on their ways down, the digital giant's interpretation of what is strategy is not working. And why is anyone surprised. Remember google + anyone? Itd be interesting to go back to some of those discussions. At the time of its launch, was regarded as a strategically important hill to capture despite late market entry position, and so the soldiers of google faithfully implemented. And what a bad strategy that turned out to be. Granted, the gambling budget for google compare to twitter will be somewhat larger.
Scrivere e Condividere | Content Writer
8 年I'm still willing to be bullish on Twitter - it can still boast a large and vocal user base, and its news-friendliness might help it.