Ask HN: Why Doesn't Twitter Charge Donald Trump to Tweet?
Twitter needs to figure out how to make money to stay in business. No one seems to want to buy it. People with 100's of thousands or millions of followers must be getting something out of it and would likely be willing to pay for it. Where should the charge point be? 10,000 followers?
13 comments
Yes, Twitter needs to make money. But they need to do so in a way that doesn't kill the goose that lays the golden egg. Soak the rich policies tend to backfire. The rich and powerful have the most latitude for just going elsewhere. The result is almost always that other groups who have less power and money are hurt while the rich just make other choices because they aren't interested in being soaked and they aren't sheeple.
I'm not talking about a large fee. People spend $100 a month on coffee, or $10 a month on NetFlix. Twitter could have a non-profit rate. Anyone with over 10,000 followers is probably getting something out of it that would be worth paying a small charge, sliding scale. I don't think it's that easy to go to another service and keep your followers.
Hey, I am all for finding a way to make sure Twitter makes enough money to stay alive. I just don't think this is it.
And I also don't think you have seriously researched it, thought it through or compared the idea with potential alternatives. I also also don't think tossing it out as an idea on HN is likely to cause Twitter to do anything with the idea. So, hey, I don't actually need to argue with you to put a stop to it. So me replying is solely out of a positive impetus to engage people in a meaningful way. I really have zero fear that you tossing this out there will cause Twitter to hit the brakes and do a hard left and jump on this.
If you want to propose a brainstorming session and some means to float suggestions past Twitter, cool. But one off suggestions like this tend to be the modern equivalent of armchair politicians of the past who had a raft load of brilliant ideas for solving every imaginable problem on the planet, if only the world would listen to them.
I mean, it is cool for making chitchat around the water cooler. But that's about it, more than 99% of the time.
And I also don't think you have seriously researched it, thought it through or compared the idea with potential alternatives. I also also don't think tossing it out as an idea on HN is likely to cause Twitter to do anything with the idea. So, hey, I don't actually need to argue with you to put a stop to it. So me replying is solely out of a positive impetus to engage people in a meaningful way. I really have zero fear that you tossing this out there will cause Twitter to hit the brakes and do a hard left and jump on this.
If you want to propose a brainstorming session and some means to float suggestions past Twitter, cool. But one off suggestions like this tend to be the modern equivalent of armchair politicians of the past who had a raft load of brilliant ideas for solving every imaginable problem on the planet, if only the world would listen to them.
I mean, it is cool for making chitchat around the water cooler. But that's about it, more than 99% of the time.
I'm sure Twitter has already written this on the whiteboard at some point. I was hoping someone in the know would tell me why they rejected it. HN is full of people in the know. And of course I don't mind you calling me an armchair foolosopher with loads of brilliant ideas, because who isn't on HN?, at least privately.
As an alternative, I suggest Twitter talk to Facebook about their artificially intelligent driven advertisement engine, because it's very impressive. I've trained it with the like button and group sign-ups to the point where sometimes the ads that come out of left field really grab my attention. They are telling me about things I didn't know I'd like. Curiously, I've been on Google longer, always signed in to gmail and YouTube, but their ads to me are total junk.
I think Twitter is a unique cultural phenomenon that performs very valuable service. It's almost like a necessary public utility at this point. I'd hate to see it go away. HN is very valuable to me as well - I'd pay for it. Reddit added the "gilding" feature to give someone gold and pay for server time. Twitter needs to get creative. I'm rooting for them.
As an alternative, I suggest Twitter talk to Facebook about their artificially intelligent driven advertisement engine, because it's very impressive. I've trained it with the like button and group sign-ups to the point where sometimes the ads that come out of left field really grab my attention. They are telling me about things I didn't know I'd like. Curiously, I've been on Google longer, always signed in to gmail and YouTube, but their ads to me are total junk.
I think Twitter is a unique cultural phenomenon that performs very valuable service. It's almost like a necessary public utility at this point. I'd hate to see it go away. HN is very valuable to me as well - I'd pay for it. Reddit added the "gilding" feature to give someone gold and pay for server time. Twitter needs to get creative. I'm rooting for them.
Unless you want to spark a flame war - change the question title to celbrities instead of the newly minted president elect.
I think the obvious answer is that not everyone with lots of followers have or makes a lot of money. It will strangle the social justice movement (not that i will be too sad, but still that is not the right way of defeating an ideology)
I think the obvious answer is that not everyone with lots of followers have or makes a lot of money. It will strangle the social justice movement (not that i will be too sad, but still that is not the right way of defeating an ideology)
Please no one start a flame war over my title. That's not my intention. It's just that he is the most famous Tweeter at the moment who is getting an international publishing platform for no charge.
They should be paying him, frankly. Twitter has been circling the drain and their best hope for a revival is that Trump has found Twitter to be a good way to bypass the media filter and speak directly to his supporters.
Make twitter great again and make Donald Trump pay for it
The media virtually allows him to tweet to all of America. Would be interesting to see a 'tweet to all active twitter users' button implemented for celebrities. I wonder how much they would pay for this? 50,000k?
Trump should not pay anything, nor should any other non-commercial endeavor. Commercial use ought to pay based upon revenue.