HipMojo.com http://watchmojo.com/web/blog Covering Online Video, Web, Search, Investing, Technology, Strategy, Investing, M&A, Financing, VCs Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:14:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1.3 en Why Twitter Reminds Me of Wikipedia http://watchmojo.com/web/blog/index.php/2009/03/01/why-twitter-reminds-me-of-wikipedia/ http://watchmojo.com/web/blog/index.php/2009/03/01/why-twitter-reminds-me-of-wikipedia/#comments Mon, 02 Mar 2009 03:15:21 +0000 Ashkan Karbasfrooshan Internet & WebManagementSocial NetworkingTwitterWikipedia http://watchmojo.com/web/blog/index.php/2009/03/01/why-twitter-reminds-me-of-wikipedia/ Twitter has been compared to everything from Facebook, to YouTube, and even Google.  But the more I read about where the company is headed, the more I think: Wikipedia.  The actual comparisons to Wikipedia are more numerous but less obvious than you think (users creating the content, in real time, etc.).  But reading VC Todd Sagres’ cavalier take on Twitter’s obvious but opaque revenue model, I wonder: will Twitter be something that could have been worth billions but whose value will lie outside of its proprietary ecosystem?

Wikipedia grew because it was a non-profit, open source encyclopedia.  Similarly, Twitter grew (amongst other reasons) because it was a free and its API spawned a thousand of products and services (some/many more useful than itself).  So I wonder, if history repeats itself, the Twitter guys might feel a bit like Jimbo Wales does these days: proud of his accomplishment but a bit regretful of not having captured the value that he created.

Time will tell.

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