Twitter, I love you man, but …

Posted on February 18, 2011 by Mark Suster — 120 Comments ↓

I’m not an investor, I have no right to tell you what to do.

I’m not an advisor & I’m not privy to any internal information at your company. You have to make the tough judgment calls.

I’m not omnipotent so I can’t use market power to influence your behavior. Even writing this could hurt me. I don’t want that.

Twitter, I’m a friend. I love you, man. Please try to play nicer. I come in peace.

I use you every day. I use you more passionately than email now. I hate email, by the way. I wish everyone used Three.Sentenc.es

Facebook? That’s where my family shares photos. I have no problem with it. But I network, conduct business & interact with the global community openly (and privately) on Twitter. I want to keep it that way.

I love that you create social uprisings in countries with bad leaders. I love that you are social & democratic.

I don’t love when you behave like those that you help depose. Nobody likes bullies. Egypt, China & Iran block Twitter users. Americans expect civil discourse and fair fights.

You claim that you shut down UberMedia for a variety of corporate reasons. I’m not an investor in UberMedia either. I like Bill Gross. But I don’t have a dog in your fight.

Here’s the thing. I’m a user of UberTwitter. I use it because it was the best mobile client in the market for Blackberry devices. And you shut them down today. You’ll be fine. People will stick around. You’re the king. But nobody really likes monarchies, except in a British sort of ceremonial way.

I don’t advise you. But if I did here’s what I would have said.

Issue them a public warning. Put it in the press. Tell the users that there’s a chance the service might get cut off. Hell, even cable operators do that when they have disputes with networks. Let the public see you as the good guy. If you shut off the network you screw your users, like me.

And if you want to win the client war, do it by creating a better mobile client. It’s hard to see how you don’t win if you do that.

Oh, and I probably would have added

If you want to cut off a potential competitor at the knees and say it was over policy & security violations, try not to launch a promoted Tweet saying #TwitterMobile trying to convert users to your client that exact same day. The coincidence will be lost on people.

And please don’t shoot the messager. I’m pretty sure I’m just publicly saying what your entire fiefdom is thinking. Others will be more cautious in speaking publicly. I understand that. My private email is ringing off the hook right now. It’s just that people get a bit twitchy that their heads may be next.

I love you, man. I just want to see you succeed. This isn’t the way …

Yours since April 2007,
@msuster

Posted in Startup Advice

http://twitter.com/ALilling Adam Lilling

How in the world is this “douche-baggery”. He said he didn't have all the info they had. He said he loved Twitter. All he did was state the obvious, that they can be Apple 1.0, Myspace or another company that thought 'small' and kept anyone from thriving but themselves or they can think bigger…because they can. More importantly because they should consider their passionate followers before getting into a pissing contest with someone smart enough to try to beat them on the playing field that they created… because they can.

BTW, i have a lot of friends at Twitter too and i love them. Their investors love them too but see the same issues as Mark points out. Nothing douche-baggery here.

Next time post your name. This site works best when people debate in the open.
http://www.kidmercuryblog.com kidmercury

it would also happen in the united states. back in 2007 a college professor talked trash on bush jr in a public lecture, week later he got put on the no fly list. and, um, there IS a no fly list in the so-called land of the free.
http://www.kidmercuryblog.com kidmercury

it's a horrifyingly bad PR move — a case study in how not to govern a platform. but the real problem is that twitter simply has the wrong structure to be a good platform. this will become apparent in time. they will have to do more and more stuff like this, especially as they get aggressive with monetization.
http://www.brekiri.com/ Greg4

As to why people are reacting this way: Twitter has reached one of the most rarified tech milestones – fanboys.
http://twitter.com/cn Charl Norman

This is a huge problem for UberMedia!

UberMedia's twitter clients will be reinstated – but not after a healthy % of their users switched easily to keep on tweeting – low barrier to switch.

Uber needs to start thinking of a user retention plan.
Kelvin Jones

So you're the guy that got jon.es… I was about 4th in line. Damn it.

I prefer Mark's language here. Saying to twitter that it must have been a coincidence whilst it's obvious to everyone that it's not.
Eightys80show

U use YouTube to share photos??!!!! #WTF
http://bothsidesofthetable.com msuster

You're right. And I do have thoughts on that. I will weigh in at some point. Right now is not yet that time.

I weighed in here because I am an UberTwitter user and had my service cut off today. I'm reacting like TV viewer who just had his service cut off today because of a content / network dispute and as a customer I feel affected unnecessarily.
http://bothsidesofthetable.com msuster

I sort of think differently about the issue of monetization.

I think that to be effective at monetization you encourage competition so that you have as many 3rd-party developers innovating on your platform as possible. If some succeed you either buy them or tax them.

See: Facebook meets Zynga.
http://bothsidesofthetable.com msuster

You may be right, only time will tell. But I think both sides lost and I feel it was unnecessary. I think Twitter further eroded the trust that the 3rd-party ecosystem has in developing products on its platform. I'm certain that this extends also to VCs who would fund them. That can't be a winning formula for Twitter as an independent company.
http://blogs.fluidinfo.com/terry terrycojones

Hi Kelvin

> So you're the guy that got jon.es… I was about 4th in line. Damn it.

Yes, sorry. I waited about 10 years before I was able to get it. I even have a small company in Barcelona called JON Software to help keep the name.

Every time I get a message like yours, I always offer the person their email address. So if you want kelvin@jon.es I'm happy to set up the forwarding. (It all goes through Google.) No guarantees, though (apart from that I have no interest in your email). Send me your address & I'll set it up. It's a pity a domain can only have one owner, so I at least try to be a nice owner. BTW, there's a business in there, selling @jon.es email addresses to the Joneses of the world, but not a very ambitious business or anything to be proud of. So I just give them away

Terry
http://www.orderpadsoftware.com/ Adam Perlow

It is fairly obvious that the name itself infringed on Twitter's trademarks and other apps had been renamed long ago to comply. I would like to see the correspondence back and forth to see what kind of warnings were issued, but I don't know if its fair to assume that they were given no warning. It's possible that Uber, because they have million.s of uaers, decided to call their bluff.

I agree that it would have been good for Twitter to warn users somehow beforehand.

But, this behavior doesn't seen that far from Apple's App Store policies and behaviors, and they seem to be doing just fine with the developer community.
http://www.kidmercuryblog.com kidmercury

Yes, i think many platforms will buy their ecosystem, though i suspect

process will eventually get formalized via platforms launching funds. Though

with regard to twitter, i think platforms that are not niche-oriented will

end up coming off as tyrannical and frustrating too many people as their

audience is too large to be governed by a small group employing a single

policy. Akin to the criticisms of world govt.
http://naamanetworks.com/ David Bloom

Amazing how they go from taking down authoritarian governments to stealing the skinny kid's lunch money. Clearly Twitter is Twitter and they can do anything they want…today. But somewhere, sometime they will want to spend goodwill. They will want friends, not just business associates. Et tu, Twitter?

Of course, I have zero idea what happened behind the scenes. For all I know Twitter worked to resolve these issues before resorting to the kill switch. But the public perception of their actions are as critical (actually more so) as the reality. Next time guys try this formula: nail your complaints to the church door; a few days of public negotiation; count to 100, then drop the bomb while issuing a press release full of remorse. Works better than “off with their heads”.
http://www.victusspiritus.com/ Mark Essel

Just posted my comments on the big cutoff. I think we haven't seen the end of Twitter flexing it's network authority in its own interest and defending the quality of its platform. The key issue is it's Twitter's platform, not one owned by everybody and no one (ie the web, the internet).
http://www.darrenherman.com dherman76

Very well said.
http://www.kofflerventures.com Richard Koffler

Keeps me thinking how our daily lives increasingly depend on services provided by the likes of mobile carriers, cable companies, and idiots like Twitter. And sooner or later come the reactive, pernicious Nanny-State regulations that will “fix” it all.
http://kriscolvin.com Kris Colvin

Mark, I don't know you – I saw this post in a random RT. I sure want to now though. I love your take and perspective on this. Twitter, by and large, when making changes has not exactly gone about it the way I would have advised them to (if I were their user experience person.) So I don't find this passive-aggressive at all (in fact, those comments get a “huh??” reaction from me.) You're an outsider with a love for Twitter (I feel it too) who wants to see them succeed without alienating folks who MAKE the service succeed… all these users. Millions over millions of them. Thanks for posting this.
http://egoldstein.amplify.com egoldstein

Well said Mark. You may not be an advisor to Twitter, but based on your well reasoned perspective, I'd say you'd make a very good one.
http://bothsidesofthetable.com msuster

and where exactly does it say that? What are yo talking about?
http://bothsidesofthetable.com msuster

I agree the name should have changed. I agree they likely were warned. But I still think a very public warning would have been better for Twitter. Simply shutting off users is bad behavior.
http://bothsidesofthetable.com msuster

Exactly.
http://bothsidesofthetable.com msuster

commented over there. thank you.
http://bothsidesofthetable.com msuster

But as you, the libertarian certainly know … Nanny-States become even more intolerable. It's like the big companies but with much more difficult customer recourse.
http://bothsidesofthetable.com msuster

Thanks. Mostly, I think Twitter needs a Chief Marketing Officer.
http://bothsidesofthetable.com msuster

Not sure they'd feel that way

but just intended as tough love
http://egoldstein.amplify.com egoldstein

well, as I'm sure you'd agree, sometimes the best advisors are the ones who will tell you what you don't want to hear.
@donnaPallotta

It certainly was kind-of-a-psuedo-spam moment on Twitters part.
Natalia Adhi

Well you said perfectly what others had in mind. I'm not a Blackberry user, I'm Android's. But most of my friends, clients and Tweeps here do use UbberTwitter. And caused a quite protest, shocks even panic when they can't access Ubber.

Very polite and diplomatical complain.
http://twitter.com/addoway Addoway.com

It's terrible. I feel lost without the UberTwitter tool
http://twitter.com/outsideshot Michael Fisher

I agree with everything Mark says, except I think he radically overstates Twitter's relevance in the bringing down of dictators.

And I disagree with everything that AndriodisOpen says, except that I like (or at least, am amused by) the word/concept “douche-baggery”.
http://www.syrv.us Julian Miller

I'm sorry @msuster but business is business. I'm blown away by this attitude of entitlement on both the part of the client and it's users being disguised as “twitter should be moral.” I actually can't believe this issue has required any disambiguation. The fault is with the client. period end of sentence. If in any way, shape or form the client was in voilation of twitter's TOS and infringing on twitter's trademark then twitter had every right to cut them off at the knees ESPECIALLY if warnings were issued. I think private warnings are the classier way to handle things. They gave the client ample opportunity to save face with their userbase. Twitter was well within their rights to make an example of them and send a direct message. I think we can safely say that the message was heard loud and clear.
http://www.timjoslyn.com Tim Joslyn

wonderfully succinct article capturing the general sentiment, maybe a diplomatic career once the appeal of VC wears off?
jwaller

I actually think this might be the best thing that every happened to Uber. The press is incredible, the outrage is real. There is no way Twitter isn't going to reinstate them & they will then have better mindshare than ever before.
http://www.Spidvid.com Jeremy Campbell

Hopefully this blows up in their face in a big way so it smartens them up. They are getting cocky, and can't forget who helped drive their growth over all these years! Reward the ecosystem, don't punish it!
http://www.enterthegroup.com Sal Pellettieri

So do you think the $10bil valuation is close to accurate?
Juan Carlos H.

You can't take this guy serious in the first place. His thinks Android IS open and that is far from true.
Taytus

There is nothing like a good drama on the Internet.
http://twitter.com/arniesingh Arnie Gullov-Singh

Curious how as an independent company Ubertwitter was doing just fine but that the moment TweetUp /PostUp bought them they suddenly started violating all sorts of Twitter's rules. Did the product change?
Anonymous

You are right sir, my douche-baggery towards you has totally eclipsed and overshadowed your douche-baggery towards Twitter. I can only hope that my own personal shortcomings and flaws do not proclude others from realizing your shortcomings and flaws as well. Good day, and good debating. Let the douche-baggery never end!
Anonymous

sometimes sarcasm is lost in a name
http://www.bijansabet.com bijan

hey mark.
i understand your frustration. but you don't have all the data. if you did , you would feel otherwise.
http://twitter.com/aaroncray Aaron Crayford

Suster just the cliff notes… and stop being such a white guy about this call Costolo out…

“Dick stop being such a DICK”
http://twitter.com/khaleelu Khalid HA

Well said.
http://hirethoughts.blogspot.com Donna Brewington White

Ya think?

(Full disclosure: I happen to think good marketing is the answer to almost everything. Meaning true classic marketing in the fullest sense.)
http://hirethoughts.blogspot.com Donna Brewington White

Good to see you here, Kris.
http://hirethoughts.blogspot.com Donna Brewington White

Unfortunately, for all intents and purposes perception is reality…whether we like it or not. Anyone in the public arena would be wise to recognize this.
http://hirethoughts.blogspot.com Donna Brewington White

Mark, you have become one of the reliable, sane voices out there. Whether or not someone agrees with you (and in this case, I couldn't agree more), they have to at least take you seriously.

Thanks for saying what needed to be said. Loving critics are the best critics.

BTW, I am an uber fan of Twitter and have joked about laying awake at night wondering how they will monetize. Would hate to see them go the route of Facebook-esque maneuvers.
http://twitter.com/WayneMansfield Wayne Mansfield

Great article… however many clients changed their names LAST year when the writing was on the wall – TweetLater became SoclalOomph which at the time I though was a AWFUL name. Their reasoning at the time seemed to me lame – twitter were making noises about any variation about the name Twitter / Tweet / bird noise…

Seems it was sensible to take the hurt then than now…

Disclaimer: I use TweetDeck and hope that is OK seeing their change of ownership and the “Tweet” in the nae
http://www.terametric.com Taariq Lewis

In order for Twitter to secure a CMO, it must have a business model on which the CMO can drive the brand. Not sure they've settled into one as yet.