Also, bit.ly can make a play to service multiple social networks.
Simply put, they must innovate or die.
Is there a rich ecosystem of social networks who have all made the same design flaw that Twitter did, fixing which is bit.ly's only reason for existing? And did the social networks in this rich ecosystem all decline to fix the problem for themselves despite the fact that it can be hammered out by a junior engineer in an afternoon?
Dev sharecropping?
The platform must progress.
Innovate or die!
Theres Dev sharecropping? The platform must progress now. Innovate or die!
If only there were an exchange on which we could sell short stupid, private companies.
Twitter is a business. One that is potentially on the same scale of bad investments like Napster or Friendster. At some point they're going to need to focus on features that will make them revenue, and they'll start looking at the "ecosystem" of 3rd party apps, figure out which ones are low-hanging fruit, and harvest.