In May of 2011, Twitter bought the most widely used desktop and mobile social media client, Tweetdeck. For the longest time, nothing was done with the old beta application that ran on Adobe Air.
The anger in the title spurs from the fact that while Twitter may have paid a lot of money and then “upgraded” the application from Adobe Air to both Windows and Mac native clients, the core components of the application were removed. In fact, the flexibility, power, and dynamic functions that were removed is what had made it so successful. Because of this, many people have dropped the application for others, not to mention, they paid $40 million dollars to make a great thing simply okay.
So for all you CEOs out there with $40 million dollars to invest (and any schmuck on the street that wants to use their money wisely), here is a bit of free advice to keep in mind when messing with a good thing.
Remember why you became a success. It is because users were able to use it how they wanted. In fact, Twitter initially was intended to be used as a simple SMS to small groups of people. Yet, the users established it into an amazing social media service. Then the users began using hashtags to transform it into the perfect marketing social network. So when the users like a client that works with your network and gives you millions of tweets, it is wise to invest in the company, but not to gut it to your liking and then hope people will continue using it.
DUMB!
Mickey says
I think the changes were made to make it more user-friendly for the average user. I agree that the new one is awful from my perspective, but it’s much more polished, easier options, more responsive, etc. For the typical Twitter user, it might be a better choice now.
Jeremy Smith says
Agreed. I wonder though if the casual person will use the desktop client. I would say probably not. And they did alienate many power users of the social network…
Eric j says
They bought tweet deck as a defensive move to prevent another company ( I forgot who ) from launching their own twitter clone. And some of the advanced features they removed like deck.ly was to prevent community fragmentation.
Jeremy Smith says
No doubt that was the goal, but there had to be a better way to do this without alienating the power users…
Eric J says
Agreed
Jon Dale says
Completely agree that they ruined tweetdeck…but I’ve got a feeling they did it on purpose.
I had already switched to hootsuite anyway.
My guess is it was a user grab (twitter would prefer that we all use their client rather than another client that might be able to sell advertising against the content) and they deliberately made it simpler and more user friendly to appeal to new users. So, probably not a bad move.
It would be interesting to know how they view the acquisition in hindsight.
Jeremy Smith says
I’d love to see if it met expectations too or fell flatter than they’d hoped. I am guessing that it did not do the $40 million dollars justice…
Josh Wagner says
Don’t piss off your best customers. Bad, bad move. Any business that makes their most passionate users feel left out is not going to do well. That is the problem with Twitter right now. Too busy thinking of their bottom line and not pleasing their best users. If you build it, they will come.
Jeremy Smith says
Totally agree. There may be a good profit margin for what they did, but they are missing out on a lot of activity from several people who had grown comfortable in what they were doing.
Paul Byerly says
Tweetdeck was by far the best tool for power users, including a good many in media. Twitter destroyed it for those users. I have moved to hootsuite = a poor second to Tweetdeck before Twitter destroyed it.
From where I sit I have to wonder if they bought it to kill it. Anyone with half a brain and a bit of data on it’s users would have to have known they were going to drive of their more powerful and connected users. Maybe they were getting advice from the same people who advised Netflix!
Jeremy Smith says
I’ve reverted back to using the old Tweetdeck in beta. I definitely think that the users that they will pick up will not be using it as much as those that they have alienated the power users. Thanks for the share.