

Twitter Just Shut Down Ribbon’s Newly Launched In-Stream Payments Feature - 6thSigma
http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/10/well-that-was-fast-twitter-shut-down-ribbons-newly-launched-in-stream-payments-feature-built-using-twitter-card-technology/

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josh2600
Are you surprised?

Why don't we all go back to AOL and Geocities. The problem with Twitter is
that it is not clear exactly what their approach to their revenue problem
might be. I understand they want to monetize their API but does that go hand-
in-hand with quashing every potential competitor who happens to use the API
with a modicum of success?

I'm bearish about any company that builds a data warehouse on the basis of
access and open-ness and then decides to restrict that access at a later date
for the sake of profitability. It's just distasteful and speaks volumes.

This is a great example of why you should never build a business on Twitter:
[http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2013/03/04/how-twitter-came-
to...](http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2013/03/04/how-twitter-came-to-boston-
the-story-behind-two-very-different-acquisitions)

Partnering with Twitter is still quite reasonable, but creating an Enterprise
based upon their APIs is foolish at best.

~~~
arindone
But that's just hearsay and conjecture -- we don't know it was turned off for
"profitability" reasons or whatever. In fact Ribbon's blog indicates that
Twitter was very receptive to the idea: [http://blog.ribbon.co/an-update-on-
in-stream-payments-on-twi...](http://blog.ribbon.co/an-update-on-in-stream-
payments-on-twitter/)

Further, we haven't heard Twitter's side to this -- was there a violation of
the TOS that the Tech bloggers didn't catch (or bother finding the other side
of the story?)

Essentially you're jumping the gun in saying that Twitter is two-faced ("They
say they're open but they're really not") all based upon no data or concrete
evidence.

~~~
joshstrange
> Essentially you're jumping the gun in saying that Twitter is two-faced
> ("They say they're open but they're really not") all based upon no data or
> concrete evidence.

Yes because I can't think of any other examples where Twitter has screwed
developers.... Oh wait....

Yes, there might be a TOS issue here (and maybe even a valid one) but their
track record makes it pretty clear that they just don't give a shit about
developers.

------
Jsarokin
Throwing in my 2 cents:

It looks like what Ribbon submitted to the Twitter validator was a video using
the "player" card: <http://cl.ly/image/2R2i1J302Z2g>

The player card is designed to handle embedding videos, which is what Ribbon
initially showed, however when they launched their new feature they morphed
the embedding options to display a custom in-stream purchase button / unit.

In reality, they should have just used a 'product' card (granted, they would
not have the added ability to purchase in stream - it would need to link back
to their website).

Using the player card was a pretty clever way to get the payments to happen
directly on twitter, but it seems that it bent too many of their rules.
They'll probably just have to use the product card like everyone else.

~~~
christeso
Spot on. It was a bait and switch and violation of TOS.

Chirpify has been enabling in-stream commerce and payments on Twitter for over
a year now. Also in-stream on Instagram and Facebook. No TOS violations
<http://chirpify.com>

------
meritt
Twitter wants to validate each domain that has a card so they can approve &
exert control. They cannot control what products a ribbon customer promotes
via ribbon. If I wanted to sell illegal drugs or child pornography
photographs, those would show up on twitter.com & twitter apps in a nice card-
like experience complete with a 'Buy Now' button.

That's why they shut it down.

~~~
timdorr
It's likely because it's all wrapped up in Twitter's web interface. To the
average user, it looks like you just paid Twitter for something. If you have
any sort of problem with shipping or the product itself, you're likely going
to go back to where you bought it from: Twitter.

They're simply protecting themselves from a series of problems that would be
completely out of Twitter's control to help in any way. Twitter would always
come up the loser for any of Ribbon's mistakes. They don't even have a way to
punt any support issues over to Ribbon.

~~~
mynameisvlad
To be fair, it does say "Not affiliated with Twitter" in a blue background.

~~~
badclient
Many people wouldn't read or remember that detail.

~~~
mynameisvlad
Really? Because it's pretty prominent. It's the first attention-seeking detail
after the Buy Now button.

------
fomojola
Curious what happened here: the Twitter Cards Player options clearly require
pre-approval by Twitter for custom cards. Did Ribbon present one thing when
going through the approval process and then change the player after the
release?

------
davidu
I've often said that my platform is called the Internet.

Or as I said here: <https://twitter.com/davidu/status/313826471019954176>

The risk to sharecropping on another platform just seems too great to outweigh
the audience / signup / integration / etc. benefits.

------
evan_
Here's the post about this on Ribbon's blog:

[http://blog.ribbon.co/an-update-on-in-stream-payments-on-
twi...](http://blog.ribbon.co/an-update-on-in-stream-payments-on-twitter/)

~~~
sujal
The preview doesn't look anything like their final implementation. That
preview looks like an actual movie player, while the final card screenshots
I've seen look like regular content cards with a lot of custom branding.

This looks like a clever hack of the Twitter implementation of the Player card
and not the intended use. The stream and content type attributes both are
empty, for example. Does anyone know if this sort of implementation is what
that card is supposed to allow?

~~~
mootothemax
Sadly, I think you might be right - perhaps Ribbon showed one system, and
deployed another.

I say "sadly," as if this is the case, Ribbon have just made every other
developer's life that bit more difficult.

I really hope they haven't been that underhand, though.

------
ElginEudor
It's called PCI. Unless there was a contract between Ribbon & Twitter this is
not at all okay since they were taking payments within the same origin of
twitter.com, thus bringing twitter.com into scope of PCI compliance for
Ribbon. This was a really basic mistake if there was no contract. Everyone who
knows anything about PCI understands this very well.

------
helipad
"What’s interesting is how quickly Twitter reacted to the situation, which
makes one wonder who might have brought the violation, or issue, to Twitter’s
attention."

Err....TechCrunch, two hours earlier? Or is that the joke?

------
Finbarr
Hope the Ribbon guys manage to get it resolved. I think it's a great use of
the Twitter cards feature and am slightly baffled as to why Twitter would even
give developers access to the feature, if only to shut them down immediately
afterwards.

I also agree with the sentiment that building anything on Twitter is a risky
proposition these days. That said, there's still an appeal in doing so given
the volume of users.

------
tbrownaw
So how did this happen? Did someone at Ribbon not bother to check the TOS? Did
they check and just think they wouldn't get caught? The article says Ribbon is
trying to contact Twitter to find out what happened, I'd think it would make
sense to have somewhat closer relations with anyone who has that much power
over your company, so you could find out _before_ they shut you down.

~~~
kloncks
From our statement on our blog:

"We’ve had discussions with Twitter in the past, and are eager to find a way
to work together."

~~~
piptastic
In these discussions, did they say, "Sure, go ahead.", and then shut you down?

Or did they say "There is no way you can do this, and we will shut you down."?

'Discussions' gives us no information.

------
scott_meade
"This is clearly something that’s good for Twitter users all over the world."

I can see how it's good for sellers, but am missing how it is so clearly good
for me as a buyer (which is what I assume is meant by "Twitter users all over
the world"). Is it that I can spend money without learning about what I'm
buying beyond what fits into 140 chars that makes it good? Do people do that?

------
kirinan
Does Twitter want to scare off every developer? I mean its kind of absurd to
just shut down a newly launched service on the same day that it launches. It
may violate their policy, fine, change your policy or be friendly with
developers to really help them become compliant. This is the Apple/Appgratias
thing all over again (in the same week); We don't like what you are doing so
we will just shut you down, and boo if you don't like. Imagine how much trust
Twitter would get if they would simply work with these app developers instead
of drastically changing policy/just making things stop working. Right now, as
it stands, I will never even touch their ecosystem in fear that I get more
restricted, or even worse, have an entire element of my business shutdown
without being able to do anything about it.

------
ceeK
Twitter really haven't been doing themselves any favours within the developer
community. If not for the constant news we hear of APIs being restricted or
cut off completely, it's now the in-stream features as well. Why would any
developer now want to work with them?

I just don't....get Twitter at the moment. It'd be nice to have some
clarification of why they wish to pursue this draconian mindset, but that's
asking too much. I'm surprised that services such as Buffer have came so far.

------
smrtinsert
I remember laughing hysterically when I read the phrase "command line for the
web" a long time ago. The money has to come from somewhere eventually.

------
tealtan
My guess would be that Twitter has had plans to offer the same functionality.

~~~
orangethirty
That's a good point. At this moment, I'd say they are open to anything that
makes them money.

------
mbesto
"News story at 11, major roadway cuts off local roadside merchants"

------
DigitalSea
All hail our glorious leader Twitter, they know what's right. This isn't all
too surprising, Twitter have definitely had their fair share of third party
shutdowns and controversies, the problem here is that Twitter could care less
about anyone else's business that uses their API, even if it means more
Twitter users or even a potential offer for partnership and profit. This is an
idea that Twitter themselves should have officially got behind, no doubt we'll
see something like this from Twitter eventually.

It's a genius idea, but sadly Ribbon just wasted a lot of time and money
building a product they can't use. A painful lesson, never build a business on
Twitter.

------
gailees
Is Twitter trying to scare developers off of it's platform!?

~~~
smrtinsert
No, it just tracks which developer has good ideas, makes their applications
against TOS and then implements the same thing badly.

~~~
photorized
... or forces successful devs to sell.

------
nicholassmith
That's a really good idea that was never going to work with modern Twitter.
Old style Twitter? Maybe.

There's probably many reasons why Twitter shut it down, but there's also many
reasons why developing a product around Twitter these days is, frankly, kind
of batshit crazy.

------
vxNsr
As usual TheOnion got the story first: [http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-
social-media-startup-la...](http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-social-media-
startup-launches-shuts-down-withi,31557/)

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joeblau
How long until the "Twitter Launches In-Stream Payments" post? I feel like
when Twitter was young, it would reward developers for building new ideas on
the platform; now it punishes them.

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websitescenes
A valuable lesson. I think I will consult a lawyer for my startup idea. Have
been thinking about it but this gave me the push I needed. Really too bad this
company didn't do its homework.

------
cmutty
HAHA! Called this as soon as I saw Perez's article...humble brag? No surprised
at all.

------
christeso
Chirpify has been enabling in-stream commerce and payments on Twitter for over
a year now. Also in-stream on Instagram and Facebook. <http://chirpify.com>

