Peak Twitter

[Shropshire Slasher]

For the first time, the number of accounts on Twitter worldwide did not increase from quarter to quarter. In fact, it lost 2 million users and the stock took a bath overnight, although it looks like it's bounced back.

Twitter is losing customers and its stock is falling

 

[TigerVols]

I work in Twitter for a living...so I can say with some authority that the parts of Twitter that are not fraudulent, are a mess.

 

[Dick Whitman]

There's simply not room enough for Facebook and Twitter in this world. Once Facebook became a real news feed, Twitter's days were numbered. I think there's a thread around here where we speculate about how long Twitter will exist.

It was trading at nearly $53 less than a year ago. As of right now, it's under $15.

 

[Dick Whitman]

In October 2013, I started a thread about the Twitter IPO. It only got one response, but here was my post:

It's coming up rapidly, and there is a ton of speculation out there about both the short-term and long-term prospects of the company and its stock. Personally, and I still hold this opinion about Facebook despite its recent rebound, I think that it will ultimately be a disaster. I think that these companies will not be able to generate advertising revenue any more than newspapers were online, and investors will start to bail in earnest in the next two or three years.

From what I've read, Twitter had revenue of $317 million last year - Facebook reported revenue of $3.7 billion the year before its IPO. Some financial journalists don't even think it is ready to take this step right now.

I think it's cool that there's a place where people can talk about sports, TV shows, and presidential debates in real time. I don't think that, ultimately, that place is going to be profitable.

 

[SFIND]

There's simply not room enough for Facebook and Twitter in this world. Once Facebook became a real news feed, Twitter's days were numbered. I think there's a thread around here where we speculate about how long Twitter will exist.

Yes there is, as long as Twitter embraces what is and quits trying to be an equal to Facebook.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Yes there is, as long as Twitter embraces what is and quits trying to be an equal to Facebook.

OK, but what is unique about it that it should embrace at this point? Are you talking about the introduction of a relevance algorithm as a mis-step?

 

[TyWebb]

It's interesting to me that SFNID and **** are making it sound like Facebook is superior to Twitter, or at least that is how I'm reading it. From everything I've read or heard from parents with teenagers, Facebook was on the decline because it was the social media that "old people used." The younger generation, those who have had social media most of their lives, seem to be on everything but Facebook. I know this isn't a concrete measure of how viable a social media program is, but it would certainly suggest that in 10-15 years, Facebook could fade into irrelevancy.

Now I've never had a Twitter account, and I got off of Facebook a few years ago, so I can't honestly say why one is better than the other. What makes Facebook better, at least in your opinion? **** mentioned that it has become a real news feed. How is that different from Twitter if you are mainly following news sources?

 

[Dick Whitman]

It's interesting to me that SFNID and **** are making it sound like Facebook is superior to Twitter, or at least that is how I'm reading it. From everything I've read or heard from parents with teenagers, Facebook was on the decline because it was the social media that "old people used." The younger generation, those who have had social media most of their lives, seem to be on everything but Facebook. I know this isn't a concrete measure of how viable a social media program is, but it would certainly suggest that in 10-15 years, Facebook could fade into irrelevancy.

Now I've never had a Twitter account, and I got off of Facebook a few years ago, so I can't honestly say why one is better than the other. What makes Facebook better, at least in your opinion? **** mentioned that it has become a real news feed. How is that different from Twitter if you are mainly following news sources?

Because Facebook is one-stop shopping. You get a news feed and your friend's wedding photos. It also is simply a beneficiary of inertia. Facebook did it first, so it has this infrastructure and brand loyalty in place. Twitter will always be playing catch-up.

Your point about young people not using it is well-taken, and we'll have to wait and see whether it's something that people grow into, like politics and salad. Does it become indispensable once people reach a certain age where they scatter, geographically? We'll see.

 

[TyWebb]

And to your point about there not being enough room for Twitter and Facebook, I have to assume the complete fracturing of the social media market is a large part of why Twitter is treading water and maybe why Facebook seems more firmly planted. At first, it was just Facebook. Then Twitter came along and grabbed those exhausted by Facebook. Now there is Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Vine, Google Plus, something called YikYak and probably a half dozen others that I've never heard of. It feels like every other week, someone is saying "You've never heard of [new social media]?!?!" to me.

Like you said, Facebook is the originator, so it is going to have a foothold for awhile. But now there are a dozen other options that do better the individual parts of everything Twitter wants to do - video, photos, person-to-person sharing, anonymous snark. It's like they are picking Twitter apart piece by piece and saying "We can do just this part better," leaving nothing for Twitter to truly be the go-to place for anything.

But what will happen to all of our clever hashtags?

(Admittedly, as someone on zero social media, I'm still fascinated by how it has permeated and completely disrupted our culture.)

 

[Flip Wilson]

It's interesting to me that SFNID and **** are making it sound like Facebook is superior to Twitter, or at least that is how I'm reading it. From everything I've read or heard from parents with teenagers, Facebook was on the decline because it was the social media that "old people used." The younger generation, those who have had social media most of their lives, seem to be on everything but Facebook. I know this isn't a concrete measure of how viable a social media program is, but it would certainly suggest that in 10-15 years, Facebook could fade into irrelevancy.

Now I've never had a Twitter account, and I got off of Facebook a few years ago, so I can't honestly say why one is better than the other. What makes Facebook better, at least in your opinion? **** mentioned that it has become a real news feed. How is that different from Twitter if you are mainly following news sources?

I keep hearing that the kids are dropping off of Facebook because all of us old folks are on it. But, every semester, I ask my college students, usually freshmen and sophomores, if they're Facebook users, and about 90 percent say they are.

 

[TyWebb]

I keep hearing that the kids are dropping off of Facebook because all of us old folks are on it. But, every semester, I ask my college students, usually freshmen and sophomores, if they're Facebook users, and about 90 percent say they are.

That's interesting. I wonder how much of a difference there is in your students between kids who are actually active users and just kids who just have a Facebook account because it is almost weird not to have one. Facebook has brilliantly made itself as ubiquitous online as having a debit card in a mall. You almost need an account to do a lot of things. Every time I want to sign up for something, the first option is to sign up with a Facebook account.

 

[BTExpress]

I keep hearing that the kids are dropping off of Facebook because all of us old folks are on it.

If "the kids" never friended an "old person," how would "the kids" know any old people were on Facebook?

The company you're keeping on Facebook is by and large the company you have chosen to keep.

 

[Riptide]

(Admittedly, as someone on zero social media, I'm still fascinated by how it has permeated and completely disrupted our culture.)

You're on social media right here.

 

[TyWebb]

You're on social media right here.

You and I both know SJ.com is the bastion of hope that rises above the fray into its own category. Perhaps "meritocratic media" would be more apt.

 

[BTExpress]

You're on social media right here.

I'm curious. Was my grandmother's telephone party line social media?

 

[LongTimeListener]

Regarding young people and social media, limiting it to Facebook/Twitter is missing the point entirely. Instagram is more popular than either. WhatsApp too. (Facebook bought both, which is an integral part of why it's beating Twitter.) And Snapchat. College students are moving toward Yik Yak and Kik, which I've personally never seen. There are probably a few others that none of us have ever heard of.

My teenage boys use social media almost exclusively through the chat and messaging functions in Steam, the video-game platform.

Facebook has built an audience of older people, yes -- but we spend money too, and the ads are targeted incredibly well. Twitter doesn't seem to have a sweet spot or a base.

 

[SpeedTchr]

I don't know how any of these outfits make money, except by using what little personal info we might provide. And if many people are like me, they lie their asses off on that part.

I never see ads on social media, so it can't be that path.

 

[LongTimeListener]

I don't know how any of these outfits make money, except by using what little personal info we might provide.

Are you on Facebook? What you put in your profile says ****. Where you click tells them everything. You provide them more personal info than you give your bank.

It's ****ing frightening how quickly and narrowly they can show me ads of things I am actually interested in.

 

[SpeedTchr]

Much like surveys I answer, the bulk of information I provide is bunk.

Wait.... that sounds like my MO here.

Also -- I don't see any ads on Facebook. Am I missing something?

 

[LongTimeListener]

Good point.

But what I'm saying is the information you "provide" is immaterial. I can make my profile say I'm an 80-year-old black grandmother in Tennessee who never leaves the house. And my Facebook ad feed is still going to feature hotels in coastal California, youth baseball, and restaurant discounts. The only way to beat that is to consciously spend time clicking links that you have no interest in, just to throw off the algorithm.