We’ve confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO. This Tweet does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale.Such a simple (and perfectly suited) statement was all it took for social media giant Twitter to announce its IPO plans. But that's perfectly in tune with the philosophy of Twitter users: keep it simple.
— Twitter (@twitter) September 12, 2013
For a service that's as simple as Twitter, its hard to see exactly if going public will have much of an effect on its user base. However one thing is certain: when public, a focus on advertisements and promoted tweets will grow. I have personally never had a problem with the way Twitter handles promotions. They show up in the feed and in the "trending section", but they're never distracting. When you compare that to the sidebar full of random ads on Facebook and annoying promoted pages clogging up news feeds, I'll take a few promoted tweets any day.
Twitter has already started to roll out updates to its mobile apps, and with recent additions to the service, such as SoundCloud integration within tweets, Twitter seems to be doing an amazing job at both keeping the platform simple, yet feature rich and robust. These updates also show how Twitter is taking more and more steps away from a "micro-blog" to a media/news hub. However, as much as someone like my self (who uses Twitters first-party apps) loves these updates, so many people utilize third party apps. Twitter has had a history of attacking third-party app developers (or flat-out aquiring them like TweetDeck).
There is already a lot of speculation about how going public will effect the ways Twitter deals with third-party apps. After all, going public means money, and not having control over advertising on third-party apps means no money. Regardless, there will be more ads, or at least more ways to please advertisers and investors. The most reasonable solution I've found is to force developers to implement their advertising api on third-party apps. After all, Twitter is about the service, not the site. I find it fair that Twitter be compensated for third-party apps. They're hosting the servers, making core improvements, and keeping the service running. If there would be some sort of revenue-share, like how Google AdSense works, that would be a win-win for both Twitter, users, and developers. However, we'll have to wait and see if that's what investors will want.
Do you think Twitter is attacking third-party developers too harshly? And how do you think the Twitter IPO will affect its users?
Sources:
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/twitter-confidentially-submits-plans-for-i-p-o/?ref=technology
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/09/the-twitter-of-tomorrow.html
http://mashable.com/2013/09/12/twitter-ipo-analysis/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/twitter-ipo-what-it-means-for-you/2013/09/13/ab3aa742-1c7f-11e3-8685-5021e0c41964_story.html
http://bgr.com/2013/09/13/twitter-ipo-third-party-apps/
http://siliconangle.com/blog/2013/09/13/twitter-ipo-means-more-ads-not-that-youll-notice/
http://news.yahoo.com/twitter-ipo-mean-death-third-party-twitter-apps-150518701.html
As an avid Twitter user, I believe that Twitter should and should not be compensated for the work that third-party developers do. Yes, Twitter has done the core work and presented the foundation for these companies to build new frameworks around their old apps, but it is still the third-party's product. For example, with third party and aftermarket automotive parts, the original brand of the vehicle is not compensated when someone installs a different muffler. Twitter is right in defending their brand and products, but some of their dealings with external developers can be ridiculous at times.
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