Twitter CEO says Twitter to ‘become more Twitter-y’
Jack Dorsey co-founded Square in 2009 after being given his walking papers as Twitter’s chief executive.
Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey told fans of the social media app over the weekend that fears the service was going to become more like Facebook were overblown.
Instead, he said, Twitter is going is going to “become more Twitter-y.” He didn’t include details nor an ETA for changes.
Buzzfeed had reported late Friday that Twitter was going to introduce a new feature in the coming days whereby Twitter users would see the most interesting, popular or relevant tweets as opposed to just the most recent ones. An algorithmically derived feed of tweets could distract from Twitter’s “real-time” feel, many users worried.
Dorsey said that if anything, his company will work to make the app feel “more, not less, live!”
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Had the new service been deployed after the end of last night’s Super Bowl, here’s what a sports fan’s feed might have looked like. This is based on changes Twitter is testing with some users, according to the Verge. Mostly until now, every tweet would have been in chronological order, starting with the most recent.
While you were away
This week could be critical for Twitter to stop a three-month slide of its stock. Twitter shares have lost just under half their value in the last three months entering Monday. They were down 5.22%, or $0.82, to $14.90 on Monday.
The company reports fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday. It could replace two board members at the same time, with media outlet Re/Code identifying TV producer Shonda Rhimes of “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scandal” and other shows as one candidate.
Analysts and investors will be listening closely for Dorsey to provide more specific details about what the newly reinstated CEO wants to do with the company in his second stint at the top.
Dorsey “is tasked with articulating the vision for company heading into 2016 and beyond. He must be able to give employees and Wall Street a reason to believe,” Robert Peck, an analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, wrote in a research note Friday. “Without this, the stock could continue to be under pressure.”
Twitter recently turned over a handful of key executives and has been in the midst of a workforce reorganization to develop features more quickly.
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Updated at 1:20 p.m. with analyst comment and updated share price information. The original version of this post was published at 8:50 a.m.
