Stephen Elop did it, heck even Microsoft’s Satya Nadella did it. We’re talking internal memos CEOs send out to their employees in times of crisis, giving them information about future plans, inspiration and (the more evident) reasons to not quit the company. Just this morning Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey sent one across as well. Bloomberg revealed the letter and while it may sound inspiring, it just one more reason for investors to look the other way. This is simply because 10 whole years later, Twitter still does not have a clue about where it’s headed and what it wants to do.
Google up Snapchat and the description to the first link on search will tell quite a bit about the company.
“Snapchat lets you easily talk with friends, view Live Stories from around the world
Google up Twitter and this is what you get:
“Sign in now to check your notifications, join the conversation and catch up on Tweets from the people you follow.”
Twitter’s shares have fallen twice since last week, ever since the news about a buyout have surfaced, with many stacking up a list of potential investors.
There’s a reason why potential biggies have shied away from buying off what many have and continue to brand as a social network. In his memo, however, Dorsey refers to Twitter as the “people’s news network”. While Twitter may be the fastest way to figure out what are people tweeting about (news about themselves, general news etc), as of today, there are not too many people in here.
Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey. Image: Reuters
Bloomberg back in June reported that 4 year old Snapchat is already gaining interest among youth circles and is moving to other audiences as well. 10 year old Twitter had less than 140 million daily users, while Snapchat had surpassed the same with 150 million.
On the brink of extinction, Twitter needs a buyer and nobody is interested. Salesforce CEO, showed some interest but like everyone else, investors said “nay”. Even if Twitter does get a buyer expect the numbers to be pretty low. And with those numbers, expect cost cuts, job cuts and much more in the pipeline.
Twitter’s identity crisis was always a problem. In a 2013 interview, ex-CEO of Twitter said, “With Twitter, it wasn’t clear what it was. They called it a social network, they called it microblogging, but it was hard to define, because it didn’t replace anything.”
“There was this path of discovery with something like that, where over time you figure out what it is. Twitter actually changed from what we thought it was in the beginning, which we described as status updates and a social utility. It is that, in part, but the insight we eventually came to was Twitter was really more of an information network than it is a social network,” he added.
Image Credit: Reuters
Twitter started off with tweets being alive and getting people connected with conversation. There was even a tweet from space in 2010 when Twitter joined hands with NASA, but now it’s all slowing down. Point is, even with a lost identity, Twitter started Periscope, to combat Meerkat (it’s been replaced by Houseparty) and with everyone on Facebook Live (with analytics) we doubt too many would be interested in Periscope (even though its offers landscape shooting!).
Twitter is now more of a news network. Need to know about something happening around town? You may find a few tweets about it (some being old). Need to know about what’s happening in general news? Well, you could fire up the Twitter app. But it is no longer a social network, many earlier perceived it to be. It simply does not feel alive. Snapchat does!
In his memo, Dorsey mentioned about its ongoing “LIVE” streaming strategy. Right there is the last bit of “cool” left in Twitter as the NFL live stream did indeed give many “a whole new way to watch the NFL”. Let’s just hope that Twitter can get this up and running for everyone, before the ground beneath its feet starts to fall.
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