Strong Opinions @marksbirch

rickwebb:

““Our vision for the company is simple: Twitter brings you closer,” Mr. Costolo said in conclusion. ”You can say something now and broadcast and everyone around the world sees it immediately.” Which sure sounds just like a media company to me.”

Is Twitter a Media or Technology Company? - NYTimes.com

This whole “Twitter is a Media Company” thing is just a giant backlash against their revamped API strategy (a revamp that irks me as much as anyone). 

But I don’t see how that makes them a media company. The whole argument willfully ignores that some giant percentage of Twitter’s usage and traffic come from communications. Tweeting at people, talking to them, conversing. Media companies don’t do that. Media companies do not foster two way conversations. In one sense, you could say that Twitter is a telecommunications company. 

I see Twitter as the media company of the future where it is very much about communications.  Look at the explosion of bloggers and communities of commenters all contributing, editing, debating, refining the content.  Look at the rise of social media where stories get shared, commented, integrated, and exposed across mediums and audiences.

It is more instructive to question our assumptions about what constitutes a “media” company in this new age.  People may want to debate this point, but let’s also be honest in the conversation and ask ourselves whether the majority of media companies today are by and large ad destinations.

Twitter is a media company in the new era.  They encompass aspects of many other types of businesses such as telecom, which makes Twitter so fascinating.  As we progress over the decade, many other mainline industries will morph into something else as technology upends, so let’s not get too comfortable in our definitions.