Webware has a story looking at how many of Twitter’s competitors (Friendfeed, Identi.ca, Present.ly, Yammer) offer more features but have nowhere near the number of users.
It’s an interesting question. The answer may be that Twitter enjoyed first-mover advantage, which let it build a critical mass in a short period of time. Once people made the investment to use Twitter, there’s simply too much work involved to move to another platform, even if that platform is better.
It’s like throwing a good party. Once people are there and having a good time, it’s unlikely they are going to move to another party even if the music is better, the beer is colder and the men/women are better looking.
A perfect example is Pownce, which valiantly tried to establish a bigger foothold in the microblogging market with a service that had more features than Twitter, and was far more stable. In the end, it didn’t matter, which is why Pownce was snapped up and subsequently closed by Six Apart.
If you want another example of a market where the incumbent dominates even when rivals may be offering something better or different, look at Google. Sure, Google’s search engine is terrific but there’s room for improvement, and lots of startups such as Cuil and Powerset are trying to attract users. The problem is Google meets the needs of most users so why switch.
Technorati Tags: microblogging, friendfeed, twitter, pownce
3 Comments
You can't kill Twitter. It's too simple and easy to use. There are a billion clients to access it. You can even do it via SMS. Plus, everyone's friends are already there.
People are not going to leave their community behind and I don't think theyre looking for anything "better."
It's hard to say… But let's not forget that when Google came along, Yahoo was already established and met the needs of most users, so why did they switch? My bet is that twitter's dominance won't last for very long.
Also, everybody seems to be making money with Twitter, except Twitter.
It will be interesting to see who emerges as the Twitter-Killer.