Every once in a while, I get delusions of grandeur and think I can understand the world.
Given the latest major pieces of news about Twitter, I get the impression it’s that time again.
The other day, I was studying “Inside the Tornado” once again. (See Inside the Tornado: Strategies for Developing, Leveraging, and Surviving Hypergrowth Markets
With that fresh in my mind, latest news about Twitter seem to ring a bell…
The two pieces of news referred to are obviously:
- While Twitter used to rely on Third-Party-Apps for availability across devices, Twitter has recently promoted “official” apps, especially on the three big mobile platforms BlackBerry, iPhone and Android – a move that has obviously upset the chunk of their ecosystem providing such apps.
- Similarly, Twitter has just banned in-stream ads, in a move that further alienates their own ecosystem.
Thinking about this in terms of “Inside the Tornado” leads to the following conclusion (see figure in chapter 7, “Strategic Partnerships”): Twitter believes that they are now beyond the Tornado and that it’s time to offer the “whole product” (nowadays often called “Solution”) by themselves. Naturally, they eliminate partners in the process.
One similar move comes to mind: If memory serves me well, Facebook gave up on it partnership to sell advertising a few months ago. Since then, facebook is selling their ads themselves.
This could go so far to signify the end of the Tornado market in social networks. Delusions of grandeur: Over.