by
When Twitter CEO Dick Costolo gave his keynote at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Monday, he didn’t intend to launch a new product. He didn’t come to reveal his finances (Twitter is “making money,” he said, declining to specify whether it was profit or revenue), and he casually denied rumors that Google was going to buy the company for $10 billion.
Instead, Costolo came to explain how he thinks the Twitter brand works best: when it’s invisible, and everywhere.
In response to a questioner who referenced the so-called “Facebook phone” and the INQ, and asked if he could ever see a Twitter-branded smartphone, Costolo’s answer was short and sweet: No.
“Twitter already works on every device you’re going to hear about this week,” Costolo told the audience of mobile industry elites. “Tweets flow seamlessly across platforms; that’s what we’re trying to accomplish.”
Throughout his hour-long address, Costolo compared Twitter to water — a utility so useful and ubiquitous, we almost forget it’s there. We don’t need to re-learn how to use it in different contexts.
And in the case of Egypt, where the country-wide protest lost access to Twitter as part of a wider Internet blackout, Costolo said, “People in the desert will always find a way to water.” (Indeed, Google and Twitter provided a voice-to-tweet service that kept protesters in touch.)
That’s why there will never, under Costolo’s leadership, be such a thing as a “Twitter phone”. Water doesn’t need branding. It’s water. Everyone needs it every day. It isn’t just mobile (just 40% of Twitter users use it on a phone, Costelo revealed). It may be bigger than mobile, in some measures.
So perhaps Costolo, despite his protestations, did launch a new product today — the invisible, indispensable tech company, one that is less about the tweeting of birds, and more about the flowing of water.
When Twitter CEO Dick Costolo gave his keynote at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Monday, he didn’t intend to launch a new product. He didn’t come to reveal his finances (Twitter is “making money,” he said, declining to specify whether it was profit or revenue), and he casually denied rumors that Google was going to buy the company for $10 billion.Instead, Costolo came to explain how he thinks the Twitter brand works best: when it’s invisible, and everywhere.
In response to a questioner who referenced the so-called “Facebook phone” and the INQ, and asked if he could ever see a Twitter-branded smartphone, Costolo’s answer was short and sweet: No.
“Twitter already works on every device you’re going to hear about this week,” Costolo told the audience of mobile industry elites. “Tweets flow seamlessly across platforms; that’s what we’re trying to accomplish.”
Throughout his hour-long address, Costolo compared Twitter to water — a utility so useful and ubiquitous, we almost forget it’s there. We don’t need to re-learn how to use it in different contexts.
And in the case of Egypt, where the country-wide protest lost access to Twitter as part of a wider Internet blackout, Costolo said, “People in the desert will always find a way to water.” (Indeed, Google and Twitter provided a voice-to-tweet service that kept protesters in touch.)
That’s why there will never, under Costolo’s leadership, be such a thing as a “Twitter phone”. Water doesn’t need branding. It’s water. Everyone needs it every day. It isn’t just mobile (just 40% of Twitter users use it on a phone, Costelo revealed). It may be bigger than mobile, in some measures.
So perhaps Costolo, despite his protestations, did launch a new product today — the invisible, indispensable tech company, one that is less about the tweeting of birds, and more about the flowing of water.
No comments:
Post a Comment