Twitter's Flawed Ad System
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Shaan Puri and Sam Parr discuss Twitter's technical challenges and advertising system, highlighting its fundamental flaws and current state under Elon Musk's leadership.
Key Points:
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Twitter's Advertising System Issues:
- Both hosts tried running Twitter ads and found the system "god awful" compared to Facebook
- Technical problems persist - Sam encountered errors just trying to set up ads recently
- The underlying tech infrastructure appears fundamentally broken
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Current Advertising Situation:
- 50 of top 100 advertisers have pulled back from the platform
- Usage is at an all-time high
- Cost per acquisition (CAC) is 5-10x better than 6 months ago
- This improvement isn't seen as sustainable - it's a result of reduced advertiser competition
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Technical Infrastructure Concerns:
- Many infrastructure people were fired during recent layoffs
- Risk of "fail whale" returning (platform outages)
- Security vulnerabilities possible due to:
- Quick impulsive code changes
- Firing of long-time engineers
- Risk of hacks and DM leaks
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Potential Solutions Being Implemented:
- Bringing in technical talent like George Hotz to fix specific issues
- Focus on improving core features like search
- Plans to implement end-to-end encryption for DMs
- Working to clean up bot problems
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Business Impact:
- Platform needs significant technical improvements to compete with Facebook's ad system
- Current technical issues affecting revenue potential
- Need to balance quick changes with platform stability
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.