Twitter Is Finally Starting to Wake Up to Reality and Consider Selling Itself

It seems that Twitter execs believe the magic of Twitter resides in the 140 character limit. I strongly disagree. To me the magic of Twitter resides in the ability to connect with people with whom I have a professional relationship or interest, but not necessarily a personal one. (Personal relationships belong on Facebook or perhaps Instagram.) The 140 character limit is an archaic relic that I believe is harmful to Twitter.<p>The 140 character limit arose in a world that doesn&#x27;t exist anymore. In 2006, SMS was a sensible way to transmit data, phones were mostly dumb, blogs were the way to get your thoughts into the world (but experiencing a backlash, which helped bring Twitter to prominence), and most people interacted with the Internet via a desktop.<p>Facebook et al have shown that given a blank canvas the majority of people do not suddenly pen 10&#x27;000 word screeds. Lifting the 140 character limit will not suddenly lead to an explosion of novellas on Twitter, especially now that most people interact via a mobile (I went to my laptop to write this comment, having read the comments on my mobile.)<p>The 140 character limit is actively harmful to meaningful discussion, and I believe it fuels much of the anger and abuse that Twitter is known for generating.<p>Drop the 140 character limit and let me have meaningful conversations with the social network on Twitter. That is, to me, an extremely compelling proposition.<p>(1427 characters)

Why would twitter have to be more than it already is?<p>It has a fairly unique place in the whole social media constellation and has long term viability. So what if it didn&#x27;t become the #1 go to place for everything and anything.<p>Concentrate on that core, make it work flawlessly and keep a good balance between commerce and utility. Better that than selling out to Facebook or Google, guard that independence.

Seems like if they opened up their API it would help. Wasn&#x27;t that when everything started going downhill, when they started closing down third party apps?

Has Twitter considered a micropayment service for publishers, given the outsize value of the platform to journalists and creators for marketing, real-time signals and discussion? Flattr [1], Brave [2], Blendle [3] and Patreon [4] are trying different approaches, but Twitter already has the scale (identity namespace), behavioral signals and traffic.<p>Since Twitter does not seem to be highly successful at existing advertising models, perhaps some resources could be dedicated to a small team that can move quickly and launch a new service by Jan 2017, so that a payment experiment can run for a couple of quarters before D-Day arrives in July 2017? If any innovative revenue-generating projects are planned, <i>please</i> involve the diehard users who would be lost if Twitter went away. They have much to offer, despite painful memories of API&#x2F;developer changes and other missteps. There are loyal users who want Twitter to succeed as an independent entity, one that can chart an independent model for social media.<p>[1] Flattr: favoriting tweets to allocate funds, <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.flattr.net&#x2F;2013&#x2F;04&#x2F;twitter-is-forcing-us-to-drop-users-ability-to-flattr-creators-by-favoriting-their-tweets&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.flattr.net&#x2F;2013&#x2F;04&#x2F;twitter-is-forcing-us-to-dro...</a><p>[2] Brave: browser metrics to allocate Bitcoin funds, <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;brave.com&#x2F;blogpost_3.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;brave.com&#x2F;blogpost_3.html</a><p>[3] Blendle: pay-per-article with instant refunds, <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.niemanlab.org&#x2F;2016&#x2F;03&#x2F;testing-its-pay-per-article-model-in-english-blendle-launches-in-the-united-states-with-20-publishers&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.niemanlab.org&#x2F;2016&#x2F;03&#x2F;testing-its-pay-per-article...</a><p>[4] Patreon, recurring subscriptions to crowdfund creators, <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.billboard.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;business&#x2F;6502119&#x2F;patreon-two-years-crowdfunding-amanda-palmer" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.billboard.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;business&#x2F;6502119&#x2F;patreon-t...</a>

Why would anybody think that Google would buy Twitter, if they think that Google is number one in the same space that Twitter is number two at? If you are number one in something, usually you don&#x27;t buy number two.<p>If you want to grab part of a market you are pretty much not part of or modernize your century old empire you will consider buying number two.<p>No 2 is already quite expensive. And if you are already the market leader grabbing more does not yield a value that corresponds with the price. And in the end making some return on your investment is always quite a big factor.

I have come to this conclusion :<p>Personal&#x2F;Family&#x2F;Friends: Facebook<p>Professional&#x2F;Business: Linkedin<p>Celebrity&#x2F;Gossip&#x2F;Politics: Twitter<p>I have a twitter account but who cares what I tweet. No one really unless I am a celebrity or a famous politician.

I just hope they sell to someone who respects that people can have a need for multiple unlinked identities without nefarious purposes. Facebook&#x27;s &quot;real name&quot; policy is bogus. They haven&#x27;t imposed it on their acquisitions so far, but how long will that last?

Seems like a good time to start building that Twitter alternative you&#x27;ve been dreaming of..

As a side note, I have been thinking of Yishan-style CEOs for a while now, with board of directors tweeting often too. Twitter itself would probably be a good candidate for such a public company.

Sell to whom? They&#x27;re already publicly held. Selling means someone has to buy up all the stock, which requires about $15 billion in cash.

Twitter is the gossip rag of social media. I haven&#x27;t logged in to my twitter account in years.

Twitter&#x27;s turnaround could come through acquisitions. If Yahoo were willing to sell Tumblr to Twitter, and if Twitter were able to pick up Gawker Media it could form a real powerhouse.

I can&#x27;t use a service that limits me to 140 characters. Sorry.