Owing to a stagnant user growth, Twitter Inc. has decided to make changes in their writing flexibility on 17th May. Photos and links will now not be added as a part of the 140 character limit, said a Bloomberg report.
Currently, the links take 23 characters, and pictures take 24. This limits the commentary massively.
CEO Jack Dorsey admitted that increasing users is key to the company’s growth at the moment. “We think there’s a lot of opportunity in our product to fix some broken windows that we know are inhibiting growth,” he said.
There has been a fall of 70% in the share market in the last year. The company has refused to make any comment on this but such efforts make the intentions clear.
This kind of change may sound subtle for general users, but it could be a big deal for journalists and brand managers. However, users who are currently not on Twitter because the character limit makes it obnoxious to use, and the availability of alternatives like Facebook that provide a 500 characters freedom.
The 140 character limit has been prevailing since the era when Twitter worked mainly through SMS, so it’s about time that this changed.
With the current social media domain being the most dynamic and fast changing area in this era, a stagnant growth rate like Twitter’s might just lead to its demise. Therefore, it was about time that the company made some changes. Blackberry’s demise is a perfect example in this case. This perhaps is a step in the right direction for Twitter Inc, and must be followed by more such announcements frequently. Another option for them could be to diversify the R&D like Google and Facebook.
