What does "a true platform" even mean? Currently my mind blanks when I try to think of any useful applications of Twitter, given that the only way to see tweets is on their web site now (effectively, I know there are some half assed clients still available for the time being).
Also betting on their API seems crazy now. Big companies or startups that spend other people's money might still be able to do it, but for a bootstrapper it seems like a recipe for disaster.
That's entirely the point. A "true platform" is, to Twitter, one where developers come up with new ideas that aren't obvious (hence, your mind being blank trying to come up with one on the spot), then Twitter copies / acquires them and extracts all of the value. It's the exact same thing that Facebook does on its platform (see Dalton Caldwell's experience at Facebook recently), and what OS vendors have done for decades.
I used to have a lot of ideas for Twitter apps, but now I am just confused. Not sure what is allowed and what isn't, and in any case, as you mention, whatever you would build would only have a very limited lifetime anyway. So it is not even fun to think about new ideas for Twitter anymore.
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What does "a true platform" even mean? Currently my mind blanks when I try to think of any useful applications of Twitter, given that the only way to see tweets is on their web site now (effectively, I know there are some half assed clients still available for the time being).
Also betting on their API seems crazy now. Big companies or startups that spend other people's money might still be able to do it, but for a bootstrapper it seems like a recipe for disaster.
That's entirely the point. A "true platform" is, to Twitter, one where developers come up with new ideas that aren't obvious (hence, your mind being blank trying to come up with one on the spot), then Twitter copies / acquires them and extracts all of the value. It's the exact same thing that Facebook does on its platform (see Dalton Caldwell's experience at Facebook recently), and what OS vendors have done for decades.
I used to have a lot of ideas for Twitter apps, but now I am just confused. Not sure what is allowed and what isn't, and in any case, as you mention, whatever you would build would only have a very limited lifetime anyway. So it is not even fun to think about new ideas for Twitter anymore.