Acquired

Twitter (with Dick Costolo)

Oct 28, 2020

Dick Costolo, former CEO of Twitter, discusses the platform's unique societal impact and its fight for profitability. He shares intriguing alternate histories of social media, including Twitter's missed opportunities with Instagram and Vine. The conversation dives into Twitter's advertising challenges and user experience dynamics amidst competition. Costolo also highlights key moments from Twitter's IPO and navigates the complexities of content moderation during politically charged times, emphasizing the balance between neutrality and social responsibility.

01:23:27

Creator website

Episode guests

Dick Costolo

Highlights

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Innovative Ad Engagement Measurement

00:57

Comparing Twitter and Facebook Revenue Generation

00:52

Strategic Business Deal Insights

00:58

Intro

3min

Revolutionizing Productivity with AI Assistance

2min

From Code to Comedy: The Twitter Journey

24min

Navigating User Experience and Competition in Social Media

19min

Cybersecurity Solutions for Businesses

2min

Twitter's Growth Challenges and IPO Dynamics

15min

Navigating Twitter's Political Landscape

10min

Navigating Sarcasm and Social Responsibility on Twitter

5min

Examining Twitter's Approach to Hate Speech and Civic Engagement

3min

A week before the 2020 US Presidential election, former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo joins us to tell the story of a company that has impacted all of our lives (political and otherwise) like none other. While it's easy to forget now, a very viable alternate history exists where it's Twitter, not Facebook, who owns Instagram, and Vine, not TikTok, that's the global platform for mobile video. We dive into it all on this episode — and of course while we had Dick, we also had to discuss his controversial recent deleted tweet.

Sponsors:

Anrok: https://bit.ly/anrokacquired
Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig24
Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acqclaude

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New! We're codifying our own Playbook notes and takeaways from each episode, and posting them on our website. You can read them at: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/twitter-with-dick-costolo

Links:

Ashish Goel at Stanford: https://web.stanford.edu/~ashishg/twitter.html
Dick and Adam's new firm, 01 Advisors: https://01a.com/

Carve Outs:

Vote! https://www.vote.org

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