Dive Brief:
- On the heels of seeing Google, Salesforce, Apple and Disney all drop out of an acquisition sweepstakes, Twitter's CEO is looking to rally the troops with an internal memo describing the social media platform as the “people’s news network” and touting its “live” strategy as reported by Bloomberg.
- Multiple suitors abandoned possible deals for Twitter after Dorsey arbitrarily created a shortened timeline for bids in order to have an announcement at Twitter’s upcoming Q3 report, and the interested parties were facing pushback from their own investors after their interest in Twitter became known. Twitter’s shares fell as, one by one, the companies walked away.
- Dorsey’s point about its live strategy and status as the “people’s news network” was at least somewhat vindicated during Sunday night’s presidential debate. CNET reported that the debate was the most-tweeted ever with more than 17 million related tweets during the debate and almost 30 million over the entire day.
Dive Insight:
Twitter's early success came from its ability to bring users together in real-time over shared interests. With more recent efforts to expand the business beyond this original mission not delivering the user growth that Twitter needs, it is no surprise to see the company return to its roots. However, the landscape has changed significantly since Twitter's early days, with Facebook, Snapchat and others putting a bigger focus on real-time engagements. In this environment, it is unclear what unique benefit Twitter can provide to users.
After a year of disappointing quarterly reports and a stagnant user base, Twitter is putting a great deal of emphasis for its future in live streaming video deals for original content, including deals with every major professional sports league. The crown jewel of this strategy is a partnership with the NFL to stream 10 Thursday Night Football games this season. The success of this strategy will depend on how big an audience Twitter is able to attract, with mixed results so far.
"We're only limited by our sense of urgency," Dorsey said in the memo. "Life is short. Every day matters. And the people who use Twitter every day deserve our best. They are why we're here. So let's show them what we're made of and deliver a better Twitter faster than they thought possible. We can do this every day. We can do this!"
