Medium doesn’t know what it is yet, but Facebook and Twitter both want to be it

Yesterday I listened to an interview with Ev Williams, the CEO of Medium on Recode’s podcast, where he spoke with Peter Kafka about what Medium is now, and what it will be.

What came across strongly is that Ev and Medium have a clear vision for the future, one he sold so well during the podcast that I immediately moved the Medium app to my homescreen, and made a mental note to use the platform more this year.

But what wasn’t so clear in the interview is how Medium will get to that vision, or what they ‘are’ right now. The best explainer Ev gave was:

We want to make the simplest way possible for you to share an idea or story of substance of some length

He ended this sentence with “which you can’t currently do on Twitter”

Well, that is about to change, with reports that Twitter are set to implement a 10,000 character limit which essentially moves into Medium territory.

This is on the back of Facebook recently launching their own product encouraging longer thoughts and stories, Facebook Notes, which looks and feels very similar to Medium.

It’s rather amusing that although Medium doesn’t know exactly what it is yet, Facebook and Twitter seemingly want to be it and although Medium may not have figured out the way there, the direction they are moving in is one that both Facebook and Twitter believe they need to follow.