CATEGORIES
- NYC COVERAGE
- WEB STARTUPS
- WEB NEWS
- CONFERENCES
- WEB TECH JOBS
- VENTURE CAPITAL
- MICROSOFT
- INTERVIEWS
- ADVERTISING
- VIDEO
- ALL TOPICS
- ALL COMPANIES
CONTRIBUTORS
Twitter Building Paid Tools – Uh Oh…Now What?
Last month I refreshed a post from 2007 where I noted that solely building a company on top of another company’s service could lead to big issues down the road. In 2007 it was with regards to Flock and the more recent version dealt with companies building services on top of Twitter. I ended both posts with the following statement:
So here is my advice. Build your own app. Leverage other technology where it makes sense but don’t put all your eggs in someone else’s basket. And if you do, understand that your position can change in an instant.
Yesterday the tech blogs were all excited because the Twitter execs publicly announced that advertising won’t be their revenue focus. Instead they will be building tools that will be available as paid upgrades for businesses who want to communicate with their customers. Zee at Next Web has a good writeup of the announcement.
So what happens now to companies like Tweetdeck, CoTweet, etc? Will Twitter make sure not to build tools that overlap with what these external services offer? Will Twitter aquire some of these services and offer them as paid options? If I were at any of the companies who have built their entire structure on Twitter, I’d be looking for specific written guidance from Twitter about their plans. This way the companies can make adjustments if needed before it’s too late.
It’s easy to say that all of the companies can still exist even if Twitter creates tools that overlap what these third-party companies offer. But which tools will be promoted? Which tools will be officially-supported? The third-party services will need to stay WAY ahead of what Twitter offers and will continue to move forward if they have any chance of keeping the momentum.
Tim Marman at NY-based Notches has a good post describing the difference between being a planet company and a satellite company.
it’ll be very interesting to see how this all plays out. i do think that, despite what execs have said, twitter will go to adverts.
I probably said this as you refreshed that post, but I’ll say it again. Twitter is engaging in the same kind of (IMO lame) tactics that Micorsoft does as regard 3rd party supporting utilities. It’s going to watch and wait, and see which utilities have the most value for their users, and then as the opportunities arise, seek to squeeze the utility developers out of business (or at least that service/application)
Your point that no company should depend entirely on another company for its survival, the methods that we’ve seen from Microsoft in this regard, and that we are going to see more and more from Twitter, are cheap and distasteful, at least to me. While this may have worked for Microsoft through theyears, I don’t think that it’s going to work as well for Twitter. Twitter just doesn’t have the stranglehold on the marketplace that Microsoft has always enjoyed.
It’s truly a shame that Twitter has waited this long to get into the game of providing commercial tools. Because now they aren’t going to be able to hide this type of predatory behavior.
[...] Today? by Henry LansangComment on Three Alternatives to GoToMeeting / WebEx by Andrew DonnellyComment on Twitter Building Paid Tools – Uh Oh?Now What? by guruvan (Rob Nelson)Comment on Flock Releases Version 2.5 of Their Social Browser by What Flock Should Offer Immediately [...]
[...] Goes Up For Auction by RickComment on TwitterMass Goes Up For Auction by guruvan (Rob Nelson)Comment on Twitter Building Paid Tools – Uh Oh?Now What? by TwitterMass Goes Up For Auction | Center…Comment on Were There Mass Layoffs at TheLadders Today? by Henry Lansang var tabber1 = new [...]