Twitter has several things to its credit, but it is not easy to be what the company is. Celebrities and the media played very important roles in making the micro-blogging site successful, but they are the greatest weaknesses of the platform as well. It is not very clear where ordinary people fit in, and for this reason, investors are confused about from where the company get future growth.
Twitter to blame itself for all struggles
Serial entrepreneur and Napster co-founder Sean Parker believes there are numerous ways in which Twitter is a victim of its own success. Speaking to Emily Chang of Bloomberg TV, Parker summed up Twitter’s struggles to expand.
“They are a company that—had it not been for the media’s infatuation with Twitter—Twitter never would have built an enormous user base. But that came at a cost. And the cost was the lack of deep, close-knit community between its users,” he said.
Parker added that Twitter lacked the intimacy that was there in the real social networks of its users.
“I don’t think Twitter would’ve existed had it not been for its relationship with celebrity and media,” he said.
However, he believes celebrities and the media are its biggest weaknesses as well.
Dorsey needs to address many issues
Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s current CEO and a co-founder, has been assigned the task of steadying the declining stock price, for which he needs to improve company morale, attract new users, and retain key executives. And he is supposed to perform all these tasks while he runs not only Twitter but also Square, his mobile payments start-up.
According to reports, the micro-blogging site has offered cash bonuses to employees to entice them to stay with the company and to bolster their morale. These bonuses range from $50,000 to $200,000. Alternatively, they have also been offered additional restricted stock units based on how long they’ve worked for the company.
Twitter’s stock has been declining at a very rapid pace. It declined by 60% in the past year and hit an all-time low last month. These happenings have left the company’s investors worried that the best days are behind it. On Monday, Twitter shares closed up 1.9% at $17.13. Year to date, the stock is down by almost 23%.
