Biz Stone leaves Twitter: Bye-bye birdie!
Biz Stone, co founder of Twitter, has decided to step away from the micro-blogging giant. Word is that internal turbulence was at the root of his departure. It seems like yet another twist in the growing plot that one article on Fortune says includes “secret board meetings, executive power struggles, a plethora of coaches and consultants, and disgruntled founders.”
The Huffington Post Media Group, now part of AOL Inc., announced that Biz Stone, Twitter’s co-founder, is joining the company to serve as Strategic Adviser for Social Impact. Stone will be advising both Huffington Post and AOL on cause-based initiatives and on developing a platform to facilitate people doing service in their communities. He is also expected to rally other companies to invest in and deploy best corporate practices, as well as create and develop a video series spotlighting leading companies and executives at the forefront of philanthropy and corporate responsibility.
Meanwhile, Huffington Post and AOL’s is intensifying its commitment to give back to the community, starting with encouraging its employees to volunteer in their communities, from preparing food for families and individuals in need at the LA Food Bank to dancing with elderly residents of nursing homes in New York City. As for Arianna Huffington (President of Huffington Post) and Tim Armstrong CEO of AOL), the duo is teaching a class at the Urban Academy of Arts and Letters in Brooklyn. They will also donate $50,000 to provide after-school activities for middle-school children in undeserved communities.
Any efforts like this from organizations that are doing well, is a welcome development. Besides, it seems that anywhere we look at now, including recent developments from all over, is a call for all of us to give back.
It looks as if Biz Stone (aka @Biz) just revealed that Twitter has over 100 million users while presenting some brief stats at Chirp (Twitter’s developers conference) which users can watch live via Justin.TV.
For comparison, Facebook has over 400 million users and MySpace (according to Quancast) has 185 million users.
Twitter also mentioned that 75% of their traffic comes from outside of Twitter (as only 1 in 4 users actually visit and use Twitter.com). This may explain why Twitter decided to acquire Tweetie as well as partner with RIM to launch the Official Twitter Blackberry app (before recanting “its officialness“).
Currently (as I type) Evan Williams (@Ev) is on stage explaining the history, background and culture of Twitter, as well as the overall infrastructure of Twitter (a talk that may appeal more to geeks than to the average blogger).
It’s been a very long time coming, but Twitter could roll out a commercial service before the end of the year, according to founder Biz Stone.
Though precise details haven’t been announced yet, Stone’s interview with the BBC suggested that additional pay-for features could include advanced analytics and information about their accounts and who is visiting them. [Read more…]
Twitter won’t be serving any ads this year, says Biz Stone according to Pocket-lint. We will, however, see premum features.
Those could include analystics tools, Stone said, and are almost certain to also include the “verified account” functionality that the site has already tested with some celebrity-owned accounts. “We wanted to show people that we’re here to stay and here we are making money”, said Stone.
Sounds like a plan.
