On the newest episode of Exponent, the podcast I co-host with James Allworth: In this week’s episode James and I discuss why Twitter needs new leadership, its massive potential, and why Google probably should acquire it Links Ben Thompson: Twitter Needs New Leadership – Stratechery Ben Thompson: Twitter’s Marketing Problem – Stratechery Ben Thompson: Facebook […]
Twitter Needs New Leadership
Yesterday Twitter released very disappointing quarterly results, with misses on both user and revenue growth. From the Wall Street Journal: Twitter Inc. delivered its weakest quarterly revenue growth as a publicly traded company, casting a shadow on its fledgling advertising business, which until now has been a consistent bright spot. Investors, who sent the company’s […]
Daily Update: Facebook Earnings, Google Launches Project Fi
Good morning, Earnings season is here, plus a big(?) announcement from Google. On to the update: Facebook Earnings Facebook had another good quarter, and the stock is up…oh wait, just like last quarter the stock is down after-hours. Last quarter’s slide didn’t make sense at the time, and quickly reversed itself: as of yesterday’s closingSubscribe […]
Twitter and What Might Have Been
Twitter’s blog is generally a cheery place, with one big exception from 2012: the innocuously named Changes Coming in Version 1.1 of the Twitter API, and in particular, the section called “Changes to the Developer Rules of the Road” that attempted to put the kibosh on 3rd-party Twitter clients:1 If you are building a Twitter […]
Daily Update: Facebook’s Messenger Announcement, Other F8 Announcements, Apps Matter (and Facebook Knows It)
Good morning, More Facebook today, but in a decidedly different arena – developers. On to the update: Facebook’s Messenger Announcement From Bloomberg: Facebook Inc. is opening up its Messenger chat application so that other software developers can add new features that will let people include photos, videos and other enhancements to their online conversations. TheSubscribe […]
Daily Update: Why Bill Gurley is Wrong About Facebook, YouTube’s Competition
Good morning, Over the weekend, Twitter cut off Meerkat’s access to their social graph. I plan on writing about this decision in the context of Twitter’s broader challenges tomorrow. On to the update: Why Bill Gurley is Wrong About Facebook I write the title of this section with extreme trepidation; like most, I have aSubscribe […]
Daily Update: Nuzzel and the Unbundling of Twitter, Snapchat Valuation Rises, Medium and Custom Domains
Good morning, There will be a new Exponent later today that is all about the Apple Watch. Look for that in a few hours. On to the update: Nuzzel Custom Feeds and the Unbundling of Twitter Nuzzel, the news app that pulls stories from your Twitter feed, is adding support for lists. I liked HarrySubscribe […]
Daily Update: Miraculous Meerkat, GigaOm Goes Out of Business
Good morning, I’m back in Taiwan, and it’s good to be home. I’ve fallen dreadfully behind on email in particular, so if I haven’t responded to any of you (I always respond to member emails sent to the membership account) please hold tight – I’ll get to it. My apologies, and thanks for your patience.Subscribe […]
Daily Update: Where is YouTube on the Publishing Curve?, Sites About Everything, Larry Sanders and The Player’s Tribune
Good morning, I wanted to give you a quick update on Stratechery. I am in the process of implementing a new membership system that should hopefully solve many of the problems some of you have encountered, including logging in issues, abrupt cancellations, etc. In broad strokes I am moving from packaged software to a software-as-a-serviceSubscribe […]
Old-Fashioned Snapchat
How Snapchat is positioning itself to win an outsized share of television’s brand advertising