Twitter CEO Dick Costolo gave a keynote speech at Mobile World Congress where he talked about Twitter’s growth, its goals and even its fears. “Twitter should be instant, simple and always present,” said Costolo. You shouldn’t have to relearn how to use the service just because you switch between devices. “Twitter,” he said, “should be like water.” Once you know how to get water from the tap in the kitchen, you know how to get water from another faucet. Twitter should be that easy, too.
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Costolo Talks Twitter Stats
Twitter, although not a mobile-only service, has a major presence on mobile devices. 40% of tweets come from mobile platforms , said Costolo, and 50% of Twitter’s active users are active on more than one platform.
At peak times, Twitter is sustaining periods of over 3,000 tweets per second. The current record for the most tweets was during Japan’s New Year’s celebration when Twitter saw over 6,000 tweets per second. But not all of Twitter’s users are actually tweeting, Costolo reminded the audience. Many are there just to consume the news and other information that’s posted on Twitter.
Twitter’s Future Goals & Mission
One of Twitter’s goals in the coming months is to address the issues surrounding the user interface for Twitter, to make the experience less dissimilar when changing between different devices.
He also talked about the launch of Twitter’s crowdsourced translation center, which will allow Twitter’s own user base to work towards the translation of Twitter into their own languages. Russia, Inodonesia and Turkey will be the first countries to see Twitter translated into native languages. Portuguese will follow.
Costolo talked, too, about Twitter’s mission, which is simply to connect people everywhere to what’s meaningful to them. He noted, “when you create value for your users, that value will be returned to you multifold.”
Twitter’s Value & Its Fears
During an audience Q&A, Costolo responded to a follow-up question regarding Twitter’s value, or specifically, its ability to make money. To that, Costolo responded, “we’re already making money.” He didn’t elaborate on figures, but mentioned Twitter’s promoted tweets and other advertising services, which we know Twitter has recently raised the prices on.
When asked about Twitter’s fears, Costolo said that its only fear was lack of execution. “Growth is not an issue,” he said.
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