

What problem did Twitter solve? - jahansafd


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Mahn
None. It's a fallacy to believe a startup has to invariably solve a problem to
go out there; companies like Foursquare or Zynga weren't solving much either.

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jemka
People like to talk (tweet). People like others to listen to them talk
(follow). People like validation (retweets, followers). People have short
attention spans (140 chars). People like to be "in the know" (alternative to
news source rss feed). People like to feel important (verified).

People will always be people. Twitter isn't a new idea. It just lets people be
people.

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ig1
It started out solving the one-to-many messaging problem (i.e sms for groups;
what whatsapp and the kin are going after now)

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terrykohla
When you read a newspaper (a thing of the past) you read headlines. If a
headline catches your eye, you read the heading/intro, if you're still curious
you read the article. Twitter has allowed to converge all the headlines that
might interest you into a single real time inbox, not only from newspapers but
from whoever or whatever you're interested in. If there is more depth than a
simple headline, there will usually be link to an article/video/photo/etc
where you can dig into more info about that headline. It's the revolution of
"NEWS" and everyone can broadcast or share/refer what they think it's
"interesting".

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jgj
Twitter solved the problem of dead-easy, publish-from-anywhere communication.

Restricting the length of a tweet solved the (perceived?) problem of having to
say something meaningful in order to publish on the web. They removed many of
the barriers to publishing and by virtue of getting a large user base solved
the problem of reaching a large, captive audience for free.

More than anything, they solved the problem of there being no platform in
existence that was adequately public, connected, and pointless enough to
contain the terse, unsolicited musings of the modern human mind.

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bdfh42
1\. Blogging was too much effort

2\. Not having everyone's mobile number to send SMS messages to the world

3\. The need to be heard - even with nothing to say

4\. Provides a tenuous form of contact with celebrity.

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ActVen
Ask someone you know how comfortable they are writing/reading an article(blog
entry). Then ask them how comfortable they are writing/reading a
sentence(Tweet).

Twitter helped deal with the problem of many people being uncomfortable with
expressing themselves in longer forms of the written word. It also works for
those with short attention spans. Combined with a following mechanism, that
has proven very effective.

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terrykohla
It allows people who go more in depth into things (i.e. writing long articles,
producing complex content) to use the more shallow masses to broadcast
(retweet, comment, like, follow) their stuff. So everyone can can participate.

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6thSigma
They blew up because it became the first mainstream way to contact
celebrities. They are staying where they are because it's a great service.

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chris_dcosta
Got that right. But not just celebrities... also people in places who you
otherwise would not have a direct channel to.

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blufox
spot on.

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EA
Twitter is a buffet restaurant. On the buffet is practically every piece of
food that caters to your unique and particular diet.

Look at the data. Joe Blow doesn't have a million followers. Celebrities and
public figures do.

@Shaq is not going to blog. He will post insight into his life.

It's a standardized framework for communicating links, ideas, news, and media.

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primitur
Fan clubs. The desire to have them, the desire to participate easily in them.
The ability to create new ones, and to connect with other similar clubs.

Humans gotta do things to each other, or individually they go mad.

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Mz
Stupid confession: I can't figure out how to use twitter. I have asked. And
asked. I can't wrap my brain around it.

So I honestly have no idea what the point is.

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UnoriginalGuy
You aren't alone.

Just seems a lot of people use it to follow what famous people "tweet." Want
to know if Tom Cruise is using the bathroom? Better check twitter...

If you aren't interested in fame/famous people then twitter has little value.

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27182818284
Just replace "famous people" with people you care about. For example, I follow
the tweets of several Firefox employees, the big names in various programming
languages, my senators, etc. I do also follow some celebrities, but thinking
that Twitter is Tom Cruise in the bathroom just makes you sound horribly out
of touch.

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j_mack
boredom mainly and loneliness

I dont use it much

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dave_sid
the world was tweatless. they fixed it ;-)

