Are open platforms really as open as they seem to be?
The recent London Fashion Week SS 13 drew two million online viewers. Most of these watched the live streaming video less from the host's website and more through Twitter and Facebook. The latter allowed instant sharing and shopping through their screenshots feature created especially for the event.
Two days later, following their first API, Twitter has now announced closing the photo and video sharing services to third party clients as well as conceal source information. This news is more disturbing to third party clients than it is to users, but who should have been prepared for this outcome. The move is obviously one that was planned well in advance.
Emarketer had rightly predicted how Twitter would expand their platform for content sharing. While it is unfair to third party applications, Twitter should however, not underestimate social networking, the very essence of which is sharing. By such restrictions, they will only serve to discourage not just client applications, but users as well. Although some have expressed relief over the privacy by now allowing viewers to see, others prefer a variety-rich medium to share, and to them, it does not matter who the host is.
The first signal came last June, when Twitter introduced their own photo and video sharing services to be directly connected to tweets in partnership with Photobucket. At the time, third-party clients such as frog and use the platform were also allowed to upload content as well, as they had before.
During the time, image and video sharing gained more popularity in content sharing. This became more evident through Facebook's initiatives. Facebook purchased Instagram as well as introduced a special video-sharing feature on their platform. In May 2012, €trending videos' appeared as content option in NewsFeed. In addition, the social network also revamped the user profile page as Timeline, the top of which showed increased photo space for users.
Image and video as content sharing is now soaring to new heights, and it is not just through YouTube, although it does take up most, which is sixty per cent, of video links on Twitter. A website analysis company showed a quantitative report on this increase, where majority of Twitter users shared images more than any other type of content. This was followed by text and video ranked third. Last year, the photo sharing on Twitter was mostly hosted by TwitPic. However, since Instagram became popular on the mobile operating system, TwitPic hosting was comparatively lower for photo-sharing, which recently showed a 15 percent of photo sharing after Twitter's at 40 per cent.
Facebook app developers are already dealing with constant changes, but they also have the privilege to creating cross platform apps independently that are compatible with web and mobile on the Facebook App Center. This remains an advantage for the platform more than other social networks. Twitter's decisions are obviously based on the need to monetize through advertisements and more so from mobile platform.
The difference lies in the way both Facebook and Twitter are countering competition. By balancing the need to commercialize without imposing restriction on both second and third parties is what makes for a successful platform.
The recent London Fashion Week SS 13 drew two million online viewers. Most of these watched the live streaming video less from the host's website and more through Twitter and Facebook. The latter allowed instant sharing and shopping through their screenshots feature created especially for the event.
Two days later, following their first API, Twitter has now announced closing the photo and video sharing services to third party clients as well as conceal source information. This news is more disturbing to third party clients than it is to users, but who should have been prepared for this outcome. The move is obviously one that was planned well in advance.
Emarketer had rightly predicted how Twitter would expand their platform for content sharing. While it is unfair to third party applications, Twitter should however, not underestimate social networking, the very essence of which is sharing. By such restrictions, they will only serve to discourage not just client applications, but users as well. Although some have expressed relief over the privacy by now allowing viewers to see, others prefer a variety-rich medium to share, and to them, it does not matter who the host is.
The first signal came last June, when Twitter introduced their own photo and video sharing services to be directly connected to tweets in partnership with Photobucket. At the time, third-party clients such as frog and use the platform were also allowed to upload content as well, as they had before.
During the time, image and video sharing gained more popularity in content sharing. This became more evident through Facebook's initiatives. Facebook purchased Instagram as well as introduced a special video-sharing feature on their platform. In May 2012, €trending videos' appeared as content option in NewsFeed. In addition, the social network also revamped the user profile page as Timeline, the top of which showed increased photo space for users.
Image and video as content sharing is now soaring to new heights, and it is not just through YouTube, although it does take up most, which is sixty per cent, of video links on Twitter. A website analysis company showed a quantitative report on this increase, where majority of Twitter users shared images more than any other type of content. This was followed by text and video ranked third. Last year, the photo sharing on Twitter was mostly hosted by TwitPic. However, since Instagram became popular on the mobile operating system, TwitPic hosting was comparatively lower for photo-sharing, which recently showed a 15 percent of photo sharing after Twitter's at 40 per cent.
Facebook app developers are already dealing with constant changes, but they also have the privilege to creating cross platform apps independently that are compatible with web and mobile on the Facebook App Center. This remains an advantage for the platform more than other social networks. Twitter's decisions are obviously based on the need to monetize through advertisements and more so from mobile platform.
The difference lies in the way both Facebook and Twitter are countering competition. By balancing the need to commercialize without imposing restriction on both second and third parties is what makes for a successful platform.