Twitter Inc (TWTR) Now Knows What It Is: Williams

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Twitter co-founder and board member Evan Williams believes the company has now figured out what its platform actually is: a real-time news platform. Speaking at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference in Colorado, Williams said the new-found identity opens up a lot more opportunities for the firm.

Twitter needs developers

“Early on we didn’t know what Twitter was. We thought it was a social network, some people called it micro-blogging,” Williams said. The Twitter co-founder said now he sees it as a “real time information network” as news “is what Twitter excels at.” Irrespective of the topic, a user can always get all the information regarding the news be it rumors, reports, stats, etc. on the platform itself.

However, Williams acknowledged that the platform does require more and better tools to search for information on it. “It’s hard to find exactly what you’re looking for. I agree that needs to be better,” he said. And for this, Twitter needs to find more and new ways to lure developers. Many years ago, Twitter lost the confidence of developers when it limited them from accessing its API, which allowed them to make use of Twitters’ data. Williams accepted that the API decision was one of the firm’s “strategic errors” and was not in favor of “developers, users and the company,” and now everyone needs to get over it.

Now the micro-blogging firm has to work on ways to win back developers’ confidence. Williams hinted that the company is already working in this direction without even waiting for a permanent CEO.

Many things in the works

Williams said that presently, many things are in the works at Twitter, including “new products, new source of revenue,” but he refused to provide more details on them saying, “I’ve already said too much.”

On the exit of Costolo from the post of CEO, Williams said it was his own choice. The former Twitter CEO did not say much about the search for his replacement but supported the company’s financial standing, one of the primary reasons that forced Costolo to resign. Williams said the revenue stream for the company is “pretty good” and that the business is “really solid,” adding that the company has much more potential.

At 10:24 Eastern, Twitter shares were up 0.33% at $36.83, and year to date, the stock is up by almost 3%. In the last 12-months, shares are down 3%.

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