Dick Costolo started off his speech at Mobile World Congress mentioning the fact that Twitter is very multi-platform, and how that’s a huge advantage. He siad the goals going forward were that Twitter should be instantly useful and highly mainstream. Right now the experiences are dis-similar between devices, but the “experience should be the same. I shouldn’t think how to use Twitter.” In addition he said Twitter wanted to be always present – such as not having to switch applications just to tweet.
“We used to create experiences for our users but now users are creating experiences for each-other.” He cited special initiatives Twitter did with Haiti not because there was commercial benefit, but because it created value for the users. DigitaCell Haiti had proved to be the most effective promoter of Twitter during the earthquakes because it helped the aid initiative.
A Tweet which embodied a mission for the company talked about ChoppedOnion who had done their shopping and commented on the sunset. It’s that kind of simplicity and personal connection which is effectively the life-blood of Twitter.
He also revealed that 40% of all tweets are created on mobile devices. 50% of active users are active on more than one platform.