We knew something was up. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey (pictured left) has stepped down, and co-founder Evan Williams moves from the Chairman role to CEO.
Williams talks about the change in a blog post: “While the board of directors and the company have nothing but praise for where Jack has taken us, we also agree that the best way forward is for Jack to step into the role Chairman, and for me to become CEO. Jack will remain on the board and be closely consulted for all strategic decisions”
Williams also praises Dorsey for growing the company to its current state, noting that the original idea for Twitter was his.
Twitter came at a time when the company’s first product, Odeo (a podcast service), was sort of going sideways, and was eventually sold off in mid 2007. Twitter quite literally saved the day for the company.
But Twitter has had more than its fair share of operational issues. And competitors like FriendFeed have evolved their services much more quickly that Twitter has been able to do.
And why does this matter?
because Twitter is the future, and don’t you want to know the future?
the future of what?
Future company that will go bankrupt because it lacks a biz plan.
This is what happens when you don’t have any business skills. You make cool stuff but have no idea of how to make money on it. Lame. Twitter is an “EPIC FAIL” as you geeks like to call it.
The first thing Ev should do is go to Japan again and see if there are any more neat things like Twitter that he can copy from the Japanese. Maybe this time they can also provide him a business model for the Twitter idea he copied from Japan’s Docomo.
Go Ev go !
It matters a lot.
This is the Arrington subtle way of kissing ass, creating goodwill, contacts, etc.
Who knows, somehow, this could bring more $$$ to TC’s way…
Does anyone really care?
Nope.
I do.
why?
http://12tb.com
Is this due to general economic conditions, performance issues, or something else?
gotta be performance issues. Twitter has millions of users and millions of dollars….yet they can’t keep the site working properly, cant roll out new features, and cant find a way to make money.
Good move.
Can’t keep the site working properly? Where’s the downtime? It used to be “hella-cool” to joke about Twitter reliability but that’s a thing of the past now. I haven’t received a failwhale outside of scheduled maintenance in over 2 months even during the debates.
I’m in agreement with Adam Jackson. Twitters performance lately is on target.
How is this Jack’s fault? What exactly would Ev have done differently? Wasn’t Ev there from day one?! Are you telling me that Ev didn’t have any say until now?!
i agree with above
so what does that mean for us?
It means something’s good with Twitter, and something’s wrong with it as well…
quang quang. Does it mean having it both ways? Fabulous.
Seems like the concept of Twitter is good. But the execution is bad… maybe Google should buy twitter and show them how it’s done.
Doubt it’s performance per se.
There are clearly operational issues at Twitter in terms of the release of feature releases. With the speed of the company moving at something these guys will unlikely have experienced before they have perhaps come to realize that their strengths have evolved differently from their positions.
Kinda like the dad who always promises to be tough on his kids, but ends up being the softie whilst the mother takes that role
A pretty good move. After all, Ev did well at monetizing Blogger and Odeo, and that’s the sort of leadership Twitter needs in this economic climate. And don’t forget Time called him one of the 25 most influential people on the Web recently – that’s who you need in charge.
Yeah. He monetized Odeo right into the ditch.
Yeah, but it was a sweet ditch.
Well, huge kudos for Jack. I was on the Odeo team and can say that up close he was amazing to work with and that his role in taking Twitter from a side project to a phenomenon was impressive. I see, above, people looking for negatives in his performance, but overall, looking at our prospects in the podcasting market and how they changed through Jack’s work, I’m only left with tremendous respect.
just another founder getting whacked in a convoluted Web 2.0 mess with no hope for a revenue model in the near future.
Chairman?
Isn’t this company like 10 employees (which includes a couple of VC’s). Give me a break. Egos!!!
YES. “Chairman.” He moves the chairs around, dummy!
Twitter has what FriendFeed only dreams about … penetration. Just check out recent “The Big Bang Theory” and today’s “Zits” comics. Their bolluck is the revenue thing and hopefully Ev has had a revelation since he originally led them down the monetary black hole they are currently in.
Jack did a great job in twitter, *praises*
Hm, the two pictures of this Jack Dorsey are very different. One is euro-rich guy and the other is tech geek, hehehe
Amazing what a haircut and shave can do for us tech geeks, eh?
I wonder what the future brewski policy is going to be at Twitter HQ.
The markets are fearful about this present uncertainty.
I see Evan Williams everywhere, i thought he WAS the CEO.
He is! –Founder, CEO, COO, President, Auditor, CTO, Spokesman, and now, Chairman…
What a career! [for a 10-employee company. Awesome!]
yeah, what a joke, right?
So I’m not sure what this shakeup actually means. They are a small company and when you’re that small, management titles don’t really matter. Also the blog post from Ev was praises of Jack and then a quick, “Oh BTW i’m his boss now.” It was very weird.
I’m just curious who actually made the call. Jack was forced down, it was investors’ idea or just kind of came to them over lunch.
It actually happened during lunch with investors. BTW, Jack was not “forced down” He was actually asked to step aside. Temporarily. For this week.
If he is not happy by next month, they will create another neat title for him.
I don’t know, maybe “Master of His Own Tiny Universe” –or something like that… Impressive!!!
Is the half-zip pullover the standard uniform at Twitter?
It was chosen because of its high efficiency. Easy on, easy off: more time to noodle while heading to Starbucks.
Now things are really going to start happening. I can feel it.
Sorry guys. What I really feel is big gas coming out…
Tweet, Tweet… What a relief!
What does back at the helm mean? Was Evan formerly the CEO of Twitter?
Jack has done a very good job, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need to bring in a more experienced CEO at some point. Since the company has raised a substantial amount of capital, the investors get to decide who should be running the show.
Maybe this is the other shoe dropping vis a vis Blaine.
Who gives a shit? Must be a slow news day today.
HAHAHA
We know it, readers know, they just don’t want to know it yet do they
LOL
Couple of dumb questions for you folks. I’m just currious. Does twitter generate any revenue? If not how will they generate revenue in the future? Is there some sort of advertising angle here? Monetizing their user base?
Dumb question but how does twitter make money?
they sell stock to vc’s
So far Evens didn’t come across to me as the guy who wants to run the day to day stuff. So there must have been either a screw up that caused him to change his mind and take the wheel or it was forced externally.
Doesn’t really matter in the end. What matters is how long they can do without another round and what they can achieve till then.
Sorry meant Evan Williams with the ‘Evens’ slip above. Banana peels everywhere here at the Smibs headquarters today
Get the market share and get revenue; market share without revs is a hobby not a business
Michael Kassing
MarkTend.com
Lol Market Share? I could have 100% Market share of a business worth 0 and be called Ev Williams. I would rather take a 0.0001% market share of the pharma business.
I’m not sure exactly what the CEO of Twitter actually does. Does Twitter do any business?
Twitter is not a business. It lacks a revenue model, a business model and a reason for operation. It should be a side gig at best.
literally re-arranging chairs on the Titanic
http://www.BeatlesConcerts.com
Go ahead and add this to the deadpool. 1999 business model.
its n’t new blood !
we don’t care, bring back that IM update feature first.
For monetizing the service I would do the following:
-build a better relationship with mobile carries
-introduce a subscription based model (Twitter Plus)…maybe
-i hate ads dont use them, instead focus on under the radar marketing and how to monetize that
-sell it?
Building a better relationship with mobile carries……..
If you can post “tweets” with SMS, then thats money in the mobile carriers pocket for using your service, just stand up and be like “YOOO I want some royalties or else”
You can also go the ladder- pick one carrier and offer exclusive “plus” services/features, in exchange for some kind of royalties or compensation packages
Twitter Plus (subscription based model)………..
I would think carefully about how to improve or limit the service, say for instance with limiting usage of the service; free users can only follow X amount of ppl, or make X amount of tweets, then offer two kinds of revenue streams pay-to-play and a subscription model. The subscription model is straightforward but pay to play would charge X amount of money for each individual tweet (over the limit) or potential source that users want to follow (over the limit).
The improvement could be as simple as moving from “What are you doing” to “What do you WANT to be doing?” might also be a way to trick ppl into being served ads “I want to go surfing” then twitter could present you with ads for surfboards, local surfing events, local surfing conditions, basically a refined role specific model for search…see where I am going with this?
-whoa thats a good idea…I can’t believe I just came up with it on the spot O_O
Sell it…
-Google Twitter?
-Microsoft Twitter?
Wondering if Jack is still actively involved? The way Evan finishes that post, he makes it sound like he (Evan) will be working day-to-day operations with the assistance of X, Y, and Z [but no mention of Jack].
What a bunch of fucken tools. They look like they’re posing for a gay porn magazine cover. Twitter is a bullshit idea and it shows how fucken stupid Americans are investing in this piece of shit with no business plan.
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What’s with all the Twitter hating in this thread? I agree, at this early point in the company the move might be only aesthetic. This company is not going to the deadpool unless you mean getting purchased by $goog for 60 million then yes you will see it in the deadpool. The only advice I can give to the haters is start following some intelligent people and not the trolls in this thread.
Another dumb question,
Chairman, seems to be bigger than CEO. pardon my ignorance, is it wrong.
May at the beginning it might have been agreed that they would shuffle up the positions. Doesnt matter who it is, now is the time they need to cash in with their penetration. They have money to hire some creative person to prepare a business model for them.
Dake.
I think twitter has a huge upside but doesn’t seem to have tapped its full potential. The only real rival I can see right now is facebook’s status updates which can be updated directly from twitter.
John McCain knows how to monetize twitter. He knows how to do it my friends.
The company looks like they believe their own hype. They need a leader at the helm not another techie that tries to shape their lives around an Audi ad.
As Gordon the Great once said –
“You had what it took to get in here, now let’s see if you have what it takes to stay.”
http://afewtips.com
We love twitter and the new interface. I wonder if the change will bring any significant changes to its users. This concept seems to have grown up quickly.
http://www.KidsDesk.net
I wonder how Twitter makes money, since I never saw and kind of ads on their microblogging site. Do they have in house sponsorship, that they are too good to show ads?