In the realm of social media, Twitter is probably still the 2nd most dominant platform. But it has made some purely ideological decisions that may lead to it’s gradual demise – unless it changes it’s ways.
Twitter has avoided much of the criticism that Facebook faced by sticking to the basic idea that every person who follows another person will probably see every tweet that person makes. As opposed to Facebook, who began doctoring Facebook posts and showing facebook posts to a small percentage of followers, Twitter stuck the basic idea, and remained a straightforward, textual oriented platform.
Even after Twitter began allowing video embeds and pictures, the platform itself remained similar to what it’s original concept was. It is a classic example of a company “sticking to the knitting,” and not trying to compete directly with Facebook for market share. Google attempted this with Google+, and it didn’t go anywhere, despite a massive investment in that direction.
But like Facebook, once the owners and managers of Twitter realized just how powerful their platform had become, and especially after powerful people like Donald Trump, mastered the use of the platform, Twitter decided they had to act. Meaning, they went from being a neutral business that focused on growing market share into an ideologically driven business that focused on manipulating their market share into influencing the minds of hundreds of millions of people.
The day that Twitter decided to “cancel” President Trump was the day that Twitter changed the landscape of social media forever. Anyone who still thought that the tech giants could be relied on to insure freedom of speech saw clearly that too much power was amassed in the hands of Jack Dorsey and Marc Zuckerberg. With a simple flick of a switch, they had the power to sway elections, and all they had to do to defend themselves is to claim that they were “guarding the public from fake news.”
It will not be easy to create a serious competitor to Twitter. But if Twitter does not undergo a major change, the competitors will grow much more rapidly than Twitter may expect.