louisgray.com: louisgray.com: Is There A Way Back From Free?
jeffsonstein
· 1 year ago
the API is indeed crucial to them, if they realize the route to success is recognizing that Twitter's power is as a service. the "old" soc media were essentially "walled gardens", and those that survive will aggregate services like Twitter for their userbase to plug into. I am developing a seminar to hold "in public" at RIT in the fall, tenetaively entitled "Emerging Social Networking Services". The motto/theme of this will be my assertion that "It's no longer the killer app, it's the killer service (stoopid)." [ http://streamer.rit.edu/~jeffs/MSIT/SocNets/ ]
nicefishfilms
· 1 year ago
Well done Colin, you have brought some light to this murky subject. I truly don't understand why Twitter would choke off the developers that are pushing usability to the next level, it seems foolish beyond belief. My first impression of the TC interview with Evan Williams was that he truly didn't understand the "burden" of the data streams. It is not a tax on their system when API's access the streams and re-push. I agree with you that the stream is their future financial model and they are being too cautious with control. Williams and Co. have a model, extensive access= pay. It is unfortunate that the developers who have worked so hard on bringing innovation to the table have now been pushed away.
sujamthe
· 1 year ago
I came from friendfeed to read this article thinking it was about consumers paying on the web. This is even better.
Increasingly as the web is evolving with everyone offering APIs for interoperability, this is a good starting point to start thinking monetization using the API. I agree cutting it off for developers is not going to help twitter. They could goto traditional media companies to build new services upon their API, similar to what Sphere did with NY Times etc.
colinwalker
· 1 year ago
Thanks for the comments folks.
Jade
· 1 year ago
I think they know what they're doing. Someone once told me that to control people, you give them what they want, let them get used to having it, then threaten to take it away. Most of them will do anything to keep it. Twitter is, from what I understand, an experimental project for these guys, and who knows what they're working on behind the scenes. None of the competition has been able to top them, IMHO, so I think maybe there's a more lucrative project being developed behind the scenes.
Jesse Stay
· 1 year ago
I think developers are getting so frustrated that I'd be surprised to see anyone pay to use the API. Especially when you see open services like identi.ca offer Twitter-like APIs, I just can't see it being worth it. There are a lot of unfunded businesses building off this foundation - where would the money come from to pay for such an API?
I think the money in Twitter is in them developing their own client, and offering that via their own website, and compete with the other clients in their platform. I also think they are missing out by not providing an iPhone client. If they can successfully compete as a client, they will have control over advertising, and can make money from that.
They should also look to creating premium features for users that they can charge for. There are lots of features they could still add to the service that I really think people would pay to have.
colinwalker
· 1 year ago
By the same token as with developers, many users will rebel against the introduction of fees if there is a viable, free alternative. We then, however, enter a viscious cycle: how will THAT alternative support itself, and so on.
When eBay introduced their API way back in 2001 it was completely free.
As people started using it more and more, they realized that the organization couldn't sustain the costs of operating the API (hardware, software improvements, and personnel) while it remained free. So they began charging per API call. The initial cost was something like $3.00 US per 1,000 API calls.
For companies like mine (at the time) who were making money from these calls, it wasn't an issue. But the smaller, possibly more innovative users were squeezed out. That, to me, was unfortunate.
In any case, eBay waffled several times on charging and tried a few hybrid schemes. I think at this time, a majority of the API is free, but support costs money. And they have placed usage restrictions on certain calls.
All Comments
Increasingly as the web is evolving with everyone offering APIs for interoperability, this is a good starting point to start thinking monetization using the API. I agree cutting it off for developers is not going to help twitter. They could goto traditional media companies to build new services upon their API, similar to what Sphere did with NY Times etc.
I think the money in Twitter is in them developing their own client, and offering that via their own website, and compete with the other clients in their platform. I also think they are missing out by not providing an iPhone client. If they can successfully compete as a client, they will have control over advertising, and can make money from that.
They should also look to creating premium features for users that they can charge for. There are lots of features they could still add to the service that I really think people would pay to have.
http://colinwalker.me.uk/2008/07/19/guest-post-...
When eBay introduced their API way back in 2001 it was completely free.
As people started using it more and more, they realized that the organization couldn't sustain the costs of operating the API (hardware, software improvements, and personnel) while it remained free. So they began charging per API call. The initial cost was something like $3.00 US per 1,000 API calls.
For companies like mine (at the time) who were making money from these calls, it wasn't an issue. But the smaller, possibly more innovative users were squeezed out. That, to me, was unfortunate.
In any case, eBay waffled several times on charging and tried a few hybrid schemes. I think at this time, a majority of the API is free, but support costs money. And they have placed usage restrictions on certain calls.
So maybe Twitter can learn from eBay a little?