Let’s replace Twitter with something much better

Re:Let’s replace Twitter with something much better by rebuilder on Sunday November 20, 2016 @05:27PM (#13001660)

A big issue with federated or, going even further, P2P alternatives to centralized platforms seems to be monetization. It's not so long ago that everyone seemed to be wondering if FB could turn a profit on their platform. What can an open, decentralized system do for revenue? Donations? Commercial tech support for node operators? It must pale in comparison with FB's advertising revenue.

This means a decentralized system can't beat a centralized one at marketing. Even with large resources, beating an established competitor is hard, but when the competitor has, and will always have, a huge edge in funds they can throw at user attraction, the problem seems insurmountable.

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Re:Let’s replace Twitter with something much better by rgbrenner on Sunday November 20, 2016 @07:53PM (#13002283)

I agree, but I think a federated platform would look more like email. Very little advertising, mostly given away for free.

With a federated platform, that's possible because no single company is shouldering the entire cost. And users would migrate to the cheapest provider since they wouldn't be tied to any particular provider.

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Re:Let’s replace Twitter with something much better by eropple on Sunday November 20, 2016 @11:17PM (#13003123)

And once one provider that's good-enough hits "free", why wouldn't everyone just go there?

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Re:Let’s replace Twitter with something much better by rhizome on Sunday November 20, 2016 @09:04PM (#13002523)

What does Facebook offer for all that money that is necessary, though? That is, why is monetization such a big deal for a communications platform? A marketing competition? There's no inherent need to participate in that.

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Re:Let’s replace Twitter with something much better by SpaceManiac on Sunday November 20, 2016 @09:10PM (#13002547)

A communications platform is useless if its user base is small; who will you communicate with? People have some limit on the amount of different communication platforms they can participate in simultaneously. The number one way to get more people on your communications platform is to have lots of people on it already; the number two way is convincing people to use it (that is, marketing).

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Re:Let’s replace Twitter with something much better by manigandham on Monday November 21, 2016 @05:08AM (#13004317)

Monetization is a big deal because communications service for 1.7B people is expensive, and Facebook is actually a very efficient system compared to regular telecom.

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Re:Let’s replace Twitter with something much better by rhizome on Monday November 21, 2016 @03:29PM (#13008898)

A centralized communications service for 1.7B people is expensive. Not that decentralized or federated services would be cheap, but the costs would be dispersed.

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