Twitter doesn’t owe you anything!
May 4, 2009
I was reading a post by Robbie at StatSheet.com complaining that Twitter had ‘killed’ StatTweets. Robbie created a twitter account for each sports team he tracked statistics for and then ‘tweeted’ topical stats to each account. Cool. Well, not according to Twitter who recently disabled his accounts without discussion. StatTweets use of Twitter seems reasonable and harmless, but I can also see how Twitter support staff’s interpretation of their own terms of service might justify the ‘execution’. I think Twitter made a mistake, but that really isn’t the point of my post.
Twitter, Facebook, Google, Apple and RIM don’t owe you a business opportunity. They don’t have to be fair. They don’t have to make sense. They don’t have to behave in their own best interests. They don’t have to act in your best interest either. Those of you, like StatTweets, building a business on top of another business need to realize that you exist completely at the pleasure of companies like Twitter. This isn’t good or bad - it simply is true.
For example, those of you building iPhone applications are always at risk of being put out of business without explaination or discussion. Tret Reznor, the lead singer from Nine Inch Nails released an iPhone application that allows users to stream NIN songs from the application. When he tried update the application Apple rejected the update due to objections related to content within the application. There was no rhyme or reason to the rejection since the ‘offensive content’ was available in the existing application that is still available within the App store. Additionally, Apple is happy to sell the ‘offensive content’ in the iTunes store itself. Imagine spending hundreds of hours developing an application only to have it rejected, or worse yet try to update your existing application and have the update rejected.
What is the answer? Make sure your ‘piggy-back’ applications are lightweight - don’t invest too much until you have a signed, sealed and delivered contract from the company you are building upon. Thoughts?
