Twitter has been going through some tumultuous times lately. With its latest CEO Dick Costolo jumping out of the nest, its inability to grow the platform and really monetize it for growth, Twitter I think has reached a dead end. Unlike Facebook which has unlimited growth potential, it limits third party app integration, controls the user experience and really isn’t constrained to the 140 character limit that Twitter imposed on itself. Twitter’s character limit is essentially putting a choke hold on its growth potential.
Having said that, Twitter is critical, as essential as the Internet has become. When ever some major news or gossip erupts in the world of politics, business, financials, celebrity, etc. Twitter is the place everyone looks to. The more lively Twitter gets, the more important the issue becomes. What happens on Facebook often stays on Facebook, it’s a social platform for cousins, close friends, siblings, essentially family. But what happens on Twitter often spills onto mainstream and usually gets taken more seriously, although I’m not saying that Twitter doesn’t have its share of attention seeking personalities.
Although people wouldn’t miss Twitter right away if it were to disappear, it would certainly leave a big gaping hole for the day when someone needs to spread news fast. Twitter, unlike other online businesses is one of the few tools that has grown organically. Being able to reply to a tweet, to retweet or hashtag a tweet; all functionality added after the Twitterverse enacted their use. You can’t force Twitter to go where its user base doesn’t want it to go, it’s social engineering at its purest form.
This is why I think Twitter should drop its business model and go non-profit. I don’t know where the funds to pay for its operating expenses would come from. Perhaps
Reporters Sans Frontières, newspapers and media like Bloomberg.
Reporters Sans Frontières, newspapers and media like Bloomberg.
Anyway, that’s my thought.
Originally published on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-twitter-should-go-non-profit-don-vaillancourt
Don Vaillancourt 