Dick Costolo: Twitter Needs to be "Instant, Simple, and Always Present"

Dick Costolo just wrapped up his Mobile World Congress speech, and provided some interesting insights into what we can expect from Twitter in the next few months. He also defined its purpose and proposition clearly, clearing a hurdle he had encountered a few months ago when he took over the reigns as Twitter's CEO. Costolo spoke about Twitter's goals for this year during his opening remarks. He mentioned that Twitter should be instantly useful to every user, and that it should provide users with a meaningful (to them) timeline right away. And the user experience should be so simple that no one has to even think about "using Twitter" - it should come naturally. Moving on to platform integration, Costolo said something that might make third-party developers' ears perk up: he envisions a seamless experience for all activity on Twitter. He doesn't want to see multiple application switching when someone takes a photo on their camera phone and wants to share it via Twitter. Instead, he wants to see this, and all other activity on Twitter, fully integrated into the main platform. This could mean that Twitter is looking to develop its own technology for much of what the third-party developers have created, buy up some of the leading developers, or create partnerships with them. Costolo also gave a nod to some interesting statistics during his talk at Mobile World Congress. He noted that 40% of Twitter users access Twitter through a mobile device, and that 50% of users access Twitter through more than one platform. Later in his speech he also mentioned that over 130 million tweets are now being sent per day. He is aware of some of the criticism that is hurled at Twitter, as many have scorned its reported 200 million accounts as mostly "dead" accounts of people who have signed up but never tweeted. Costolo assured listeners that one of Twitter's main goals this year is closing the gap between "awareness of Twitter" and "engagement with Twitter". Costolo also announced a crowdsourced translation project in his speech, and that Twitter will be translated into Russian and Portuguese later this year. The theme of Costolo's speech was that Twitter should be instant, simple, and always present. It is designed to isntantly connect people with no hassle, and it should be accessable from anywhere at any time. This holds true for Twitter's business impact, its social impact and its political impact. Costolo nicely sums up his Mobile World Congress speech in a few tweets sent right after he spoke:

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Dick Costolo: Twitter Needs to be "Instant, Simple, and Always Present"

Lauren Dugan

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Lauren Dugan