OPINION
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Twitter Is Just a Fad
Social networking site has no long-term viability: Friedman
By Nick McMaster
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Posted Jul 29, 09 5:27 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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Jon Friedman doesn’t really like Twitter, he writes for MarketWatch. He thinks the 140-character cap keeps Tweets superficial—which is why Ashton Kutcher loves it. It proved useful for Iranian protesters, but for those of us in relatively stable countries, Friedman agrees with blogger Jon Taplin: "Twitter has no business model," Taplin said. "It's a fad. They come and go."
Taplin, a digital media professor at USC, says Twitter reminds him of the dot.com boom, when firms pointed to huge customer bases—but had no way to monetize them. Such companies “end up being roadkill” Taplin says. Judging by the sampling of millenials in his classroom at USC, young people "don't care about Twitter at all. It's a time-waster for them," Taplin says.