Daily Management Review

Tweeter Plans Beyond Its 140-Character Limit: Re/Code


09/29/2015




Tweeter Plans Beyond Its 140-Character Limit: Re/Code
Re/code reported on Tuesday that users of Twitter could soon have more than the 140 characters stipulated for placing their views as the company I building a new product that will allow users to share tweets that are longer 140-character limit.
 
The website reported this quoting multiple people familiar with the company’s plans.
 
While the sources said that the new product would enable the Twitter users to publish long-form content to the service, they were unclear about what the product will look like, reported the website.
 
While users can already tweet out blocks of text with products like OneShot, but those are simply images, not actual text published on Twitter.
 
According to news agency Reuters, a Twitter spokesperson declined to comment.
 
There have been demands b the users and those outside the company to extend the 140-character limit that has been one of Twitter’s trademark features since day one. This feature of the World’s one of the most used social platforms that has been scrutinized by many.
 
According to multiple sources, this issue of expanding the 140 word limit has also been a topic of discussion internally at Twitter for years. As the company has been exploring new ways to grow its user base under the interim CEO Jack Dorsey, this issue has resurfaced many times in recent months.
 
Re/code also said quoting sources close to the company that execs have been openly discussing the idea of tweaking how Twitter measures its 140-character limit by removing things like links and user handles from the count, in addition to the long-form product.
 
Twitter added a “retweet with comment” option in April to give people more room to comment on tweets they share and this has been one of the ways in the past when Twitter has tinkered with the limit in other ways.
 
While the Twitter Cards are still holds on to the 140-character limit but are intended to help people and the advertisers share lots of information. in June this year, the company also lifted the 140-character rule on private messages.
 
It has also been reported that the interim CEO is apparently supportive of a potential change and is ready to hold and take this bold stance to showcase this as yet another sign that he is not simply keeping the CEO seat warm until Twitter finds someone permanent

“People have been very precious at Twitter about what Twitter can be and how much it can be evolved,” Re/code quoted one current senior employee saying.

“Having Jack come in and say it’s okay makes all the difference in the world,” the employee is reported to have said.
 
While being critical of some of the company's most recent product changes, recently in one his first earnings call CEO Dorsey expressed the need for Twitter to reach a more mainstream audience. There have been desperate attempts by twitter to find new ways to attract users to the product.
 
Sources said that Tweaking the character count or allowing for longer tweets are ways to try and do that. However the analysts are debating about whether or not a long-form option would actually increase Twitter’s audience.

(Source:http://recode.net & www.reuters.com)