Twitter Acquires, Shuts Down Would-Be Slack Rival Quill (techcrunch.com) 14
Twitter announced it has acquired Quill, a business-focused messaging service meant to compete against the likes of Slack. According to TechCrunch, "Quill is not making the cut in the acquisition: it will be winding down as an app" as Twitter works to incorporate many of its features into its own service. From the report: Quill notes in a brief announcement on its site that users will be "able to export your team message history until 1pm PST, Saturday, December 11th 2021, when we will be turning off our servers and deleting all data." It will issue refunds for all active teams. But the team and its IP are joining the flock: Specifically, Quill's people will be joining Twitter's Experience organization to work on messaging tools, specifically Twitter direct messages. Pettersson will be taking a role as product manager, reporting into the Conversations team under Oji Udezue, Twitter tells me.
DMs have long been a source of interest for Twitter observers, and some have wondered when and if Twitter would ever seek to develop them into a more standalone product (something that they've toyed with apparently) and possible business line. That would make some sense, given the huge boom we've seen in messaging apps in recent years, and the moves so many other open-ended social media platforms have made to boost their own direct messaging businesses. Now, with Twitter making more moves to diversify its business, maybe this could be an opportunity to rethink DMs too.
DMs have long been a source of interest for Twitter observers, and some have wondered when and if Twitter would ever seek to develop them into a more standalone product (something that they've toyed with apparently) and possible business line. That would make some sense, given the huge boom we've seen in messaging apps in recent years, and the moves so many other open-ended social media platforms have made to boost their own direct messaging businesses. Now, with Twitter making more moves to diversify its business, maybe this could be an opportunity to rethink DMs too.
This calls for a class action (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm pretty sure there is an arbitration cause, disclaimer rule, whatever in their contract. I don't care. It should not be legal to abruptly stop paid services only because you sold your company.
Except for emergencies (like bankruptcy), the obligations should pass on as well as assets. If you cannot so much that keep the servers alive... more than a week... you are a terrible company.
And should be sued severely for breach of contract.
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Whether or not it should be allowed is open for debate for sure, but the fact that it benefits rich people ought to tell you all you need to know about how that debate will go.
Re:This calls for a class action (Score:5, Interesting)
Buying potential competition and closing them down is capitalism 101.
Whether or not it should be allowed is open for debate for sure, but the fact that it benefits rich people ought to tell you all you need to know about how that debate will go.
Except it was a Slack competitor, not a Twitter one.
I'm wondering if this is simply Twitter buying the Quill team, and the Quill founders taking the available exit after they failed to gain traction competing against Slack.
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Quill doesn't compete with Twitter.
So people keep telling me. I'm not buying it though.
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Most EULAs/contracts are "we provide service" (maybe give you an SLA if you are lucky.) If not, you are entitled to a refund. They are issuing refunds, so everything is likely on the up-and-up. (Very likely full refunds as well.)
It stinks if you're relying on them - but this is a common start-up risk and event. Company purchases a startup for its technology and/or people - with zero intent to continue the standalone product. Rapid End-of-Sale and move on to the next product.
Twitter has too much money? (Score:2)
Capture and Kill for a non-competitor? That's super expensive and I don't care how talented the dev team is.
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Yeah it sounds silly in theory, but likely "quil" loses lots of money, and they're more interested in attempting to slackify twitter.
AFAIK Twitter doesn't make any money either, so this is really just VC's playing favorites I guess.
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It's a very strange move, for sure. My guess is Quill doesn't make money, and they couldn't see a way to fix that.
Twitter's UI and general approach is so horrible I can't imagine trying to "slackify" it. You'd be better off twitterising Slack than the other way around. They solve different problems though, so I wonder why join them together? Perhaps they realised much the same, and as Quill was loss making, looked to sell it. They either couldn't find a buyer, or realised the price they'd get was less than
Besides the competitive economics..... (Score:1)
It looks like a source merge. Do you suspect? Maybe?