Today, A Star Died
Jack Dorsey got recently voted in as the new CEO of Twitter, while also maintaining his role as CEO at Square, a mobile payments company also based in San Francisco.
The first public act that Jack Dorsey decides to do is to change one of the most pivitol aspects of what makes Twitter unique, killing off the “Fav”. To replace it, a symbol that some argue is easier to use and more universal, a heart.
Twitter announced this via a blog post that you can read here. They say that the heart is an inspiration that they brought over from their other company, Periscope. Periscope uses hearts as a way to “clap” or “fist-bump” content creators mid-stream. Twitter apparently now believes that this will also make a better fit or possibly more continuity with their main brand Twitter.
We are changing our star icon for favorites to a heart and we’ll be calling them likes. We want to make Twitter easier and more rewarding to use, and we know that at times the star could be confusing, especially to newcomers. You might like a lot of things, but not everything can be your favorite.
The heart, in contrast, is a universal symbol that resonates across languages, cultures, and time zones. The heart is more expressive, enabling you to convey a range of emotions and easily connect with people. And in our tests, we found that people loved it.
While Twitter might claim that they made this change because of Periscope or because of market research, I think the real reason is actually linked to the simple fact that Twitter is trying to grow with a new crowd, the crowd that uses Facebook and Instagram, which Twitter has historically failed at winning over.
If you are active on Twitter you have likely heard it before from friends who repeatedly state “I don’t get Twitter”.
As a public company, this continual growth will be more important than ever for Twitter to impress its’ shareholders. While Twitter looks for more users, they have undoubtedly noticed that many of us seem to be drawn to either Facebook OR Twitter, but rarely devoted to both. Twitter sees a huge audience and growth potential happening over at the world of Facebook and this is its first step to show that they are serious about getting this marketshare.
