Life after App.net?
Posted on Tuesday January 14, 2014
Lately, I have become more and more worried about the sustainability of App.net as a service. Many have doubted the same many times earlier, and lately these voices have become stronger. Competition is tough in the social media space, and as a newcomer App.net (it launched a bit over a year ago) is facing tough competition from a few other services that have been around for a longer time (notably from Twitter).
I would like to see App.net to live on. I have just made my 10000th post there, entering the infamous #CookieClub. I have met wonderful people on App.net, and I would like to keep that community around. It would make me sad if the service would die away.
To be honest, my worries of the sustainability of social media services aren’t limited to App.net only. I have started to question the viability of other services too. Only a handful of the existing services are profitable, or can cut even. Of the services I use, only Facebook (messenger; I can’t remember when I checked my timeline the last time) and LinkedIn (I’m not actively posting or taking part in group discussions) are profitable. Actually, they are very profitable. Therefore, I would expect these two services to live on, unless they do something really stupid[1] and push users away.
I do have a Google+ account, but I never use it. Similarly, I have a Twitter account but due to their attitude towards its users and the 3rd party developers that actively shaped the service to be what it is have alienated me from it. Of these, I would expect Google+ to live on as Google, as creepy as it is, will push it to every imaginable thing in their ecosystem. On the other hand, I’m expecting Twitter to face difficulties to keep the service up and running.
Why I believe Twitter is in trouble? Just look at their financial performance. They are making loss every single year. And the trend isn’t looking good. That means they need to make something to turn the company profitable. They could introduce a paid subscription, but because people are cheap I have hard time to think that would really work. Alternatively, they could try to increase their income by showing more “promoted tweets” (thus annoying the “users” of the service even more), by paying more to the advertisers (they would be happy, wouldn’t they?), or by asking a lot more money for the data they give out to external services (yeah, they are so willing to pay more). It’s only a matter of time when investors will pull the plug and withdraw their support for the continuously unprofitable service.
So, Twitter is not an option. Google+ (Google in general, to be precise) is disgusting and I don’t want to use it at all. Facebook provides me only a messaging platform that I use as a backup solution. LinkedIn is there but only for my professional connections. What I would do if App.net would die away? That’s a damn good question.
I wouldn’t go back to Facebook. It’s just not for me. And I can’t stand the way they push ads everywhere. In fact, if[2] Facebook starts displaying ads interleaved with messages in the messenger, I am ready to delete my account. LinkedIn? I don’t see it as a replacement for App.net.
What other “services” I could use? IRC. XMPP (Jabber) chat. Email. Okay, maybe not email, we live in a world where there is more than enough unnecessary email. IRC and XMPP chat are, in my opinion, viable solutions. There are IRC and XMPP servers all around the world that allow people to connect with each other. And one can set up a server for both of them if that is your cup of tea. You can expect to find me using either one, or both, of these alternatives.
Oh, and I could focus more on this blog. But that would be only unidirectional communication because I am never going to enable commenting on this site. That would mean that the discussion of the topic(s) would take place elsewhere.
But this is all speculation. Maybe App.net can become the best of the best in social media scene and be the go-to solution for people’s social media needs. Maybe they can find a sustainable business model and grow steadily while keeping all parties happy. At least they are trying. Let’s not give up the hope. Okay?