The world needs <i>the internet</i>; the specific software running at the endpoints isn&#x27;t particularly important. Twitter was used because... it was already used by the people involved.<p>The benefit of any place or tool for social activities is only tangentially related to the benefits provided by that place or tool. The value is the <i>people</i> that are using it, who can (and do) move all the time.<p>Anybody interested in the relationship between a service like twitter and the people that <i>create it&#x27;s value</i> by using it may be interested in the talk[1] given by an admin o fark.com a few years ago, where they discuss how they almost destroyed their community (&quot;you&#x27;ll get over it&quot;) from a failure to remember <i>why</i> people came to their site.<p>If there is one lesson that Twitter or any other social media business needs to learn, it&#x27;s the one discussed in talk: involve the people that use your service at least <i>somewhat</i> in the changes you make to the service, and absolutely don&#x27;t <i>surprise</i> them with sudden change, or they will find some other place to hang out.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=YnVeysllPDI" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=YnVeysllPDI</a> (language warning, if that matters (it&#x27;s veyr mild))