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NEWS > TECHNOLOGY > ORPHAN TWEETS LEAVING TWITTER OVERBURDENED
ORPHAN TWEETS LEAVING TWITTER OVERBURDENED
October 4 2009
San Francisco, CA – When Twitter first launched in 2006 people knew the site was something different. The service that invented the term ‘micro-blogging’ didn’t exactly start off like gangbusters but now, three years after launching the site has become 
the wunderkind of the web community. With celebrities of all dimensions touting the service the site has a grip on the public’s imagination that others only dream about. Like most web successes though the company still struggles with its economic model which as the site continues to grow only becomes more and more of an issue.
With issues such as staffing and server costs growing as more and more people jump on the Twitter bandwagon and still little or no revenue in sight many are concerned about the long term viability of the site. Of increasing concern though isn’t the revenue stream, it is the burden being created by orphan tweets as accounts continue to be created and largely unused. With an estimated 40 per cent of users leaving the site with their tweets in a basket, the company is learning the harsh realities of opening their doors to so many people.
“Every time a visitor visits a website they are drawing server resources and bandwidth. That costs money. Every time a user creates an account their profile and actions need to be saved on those servers and that costs money. The mantra of most Web 2.0 companies has been to build users and hope that revenue will come, though for many that has not happened and many of them are ending up with these abandoned accounts on their servers,” said Scrape TV Technology analyst Ken Kevins. “That’s long been the case with the web, no matter what version you are dealing with, that sites end up with orphans but Twitter is seeing a much higher rate of abandonment that very shortly could become a crisis for the young company.”
Among other issues, the site is beginning to run out of usernames which could be alleviated with the elimination of existing but unused accounts, a solution some but not all are favouring.
“When you have a child abandoned at a door stoop you don’t throw it in the river because you don’t want to take care of it. You bring it into your home or you pass it on to child services, but you certainly don’t kill it and that is what Twitter is considering doing. In any relationship both sides are responsible for the consequences and Twitter has to realize that,” continued Kevins. “If a young single mother throws her newborn into the garbage to die she is arrested. Sure she didn’t want the baby and it’s really doing nothing but taking up space, but you simply don’t do that. Killing orphans simply isn’t acceptable.”
The company is also looking at ways to increase user retention, something which observers cite as a very difficult task due to the sheer number of people flocking to the site every day, many of which simply abandon their account after making a tweet or two.
“One of the core issues is that you are relying on the good nature of people, a nature which for many simply doesn’t exist. People go in, take what they want, and move on. If there’s an accident they pass the effects onto someone else, they make it somebody else’s problem and that is going to continue to be a problem with Twitter,” continued Kevins. “They are now left with the burden of these people’s mistakes and the issues are only going to compound as the site grows. One thing they can’t do is through all those orphans is simply toss them in the garbage. Twitter has had their part in making these tweets and they will have to deal with them no matter the burden.”
Twitter officials claim to have no responsibility for any tweets, whether orphaned or not.
Martin Philton, Technology Correspondent
NEWS > TECHNOLOGY > ORPHAN TWEETS LEAVING TWITTER OVERBURDENED
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