“亚洲电竞先驱”Twitter的出路 打造实时新闻讨论区

Here, in 140 characters or less, is some free advice for Twitter’s next chief executive: Focus on live events. People never tire of gabbing about what’s going on right now. Twitter could be the best place for that. Do it fast.在这里，我要用将近140个字符，为Twitter的下任首席执行官获取一些免费建议：注重在动态事件上。人总有一天会厌烦谈论当下正在再次发生的事情。Twitter有可能就是最合适展开这种谈论的地方。

速度要慢。That may sound a bit simplistic. The news that Dick Costolo will resign at the end of this month is sure to elicit a raft of doomsaying commentary about the company. Mr. Costolo, who since 2010 has been chief executive of Twitter, the service that lets people post 140-character messages, helped take the company public in 2013 and built it into a Silicon Valley force.这听得一起有可能有点过分形式化了。

迪克·科斯特罗(Dick Costolo)将在本月底请辞，这个消息一定会引起一些评论，说道Twitter末日将至。科斯特洛自2010年以来仍然是其首席执行官，在他任内，这个让用户公布140字符信息的服务在2013年上市，并且沦为一支硅谷的主要力量。Along the way, however, Twitter’s audience growth stalled, and its advertising business looks to be cooling. From afar, Twitter can sometimes look dysfunctional, especially compared with its robotically disciplined competitors in the social networking business, among them Facebook and Pinterest, whose fortunes all burn brighter.然而Twitter用户快速增长衰退，广告业务看起来日益冷清。

总体来看，Twitter有时候变得运转不顺，特别是在不如它在社交网络领域那些井井有条的竞争对手，比如Facebook和Pinterest，前景都比它好。Among some investors and users, there is now a more straightforward and optimistic case to be made for the rebirth of Twitter under a new chief. That case involves focus. Twitter, as a service, is many things to many people at different times. It is one of the world’s best sources for news and for jokes about news, a playground for professional networking, and a haven for that most human of pastimes, idle gossip.在一些投资者和用户显然，Twitter要下一个首席执行官手中重生，目前有一个更加必要的、更加悲观的原因。它牵涉到侧重点。Twitter作为一个服务，对很多人来说，在有所不同时间里有很多有所不同的用途。

它是世界上最差的新闻来源，以及有关新闻的笑话的来源，也是职业人脉活动的平台，还是很多人玩乐、闲谈的避风港。But because the service offers so many uses, Twitter, as a company, has had trouble focusing on one purpose for which it should aim to excel. The lack of concentration has damaged its prospects with users, investors and advertisers. Choosing a single intent for Twitter — and working to make that a reality — ought to be the next chief’s main task.但由于它获取了这么多的用途，Twitter作为一家公司，无法注重在一个它应当出类拔萃的目标上。

缺少侧重点的问题已相当严重伤害了它在用户、投资者和广告主眼中的形象。给Twitter自由选择一个目标——并努力实现它——应当沦为其下一任首席执行官的主要任务。

Among the many uses that Twitter fulfills as a social network, there is one it is uniquely suited for: as a global gathering space for live events. When something goes down in the real world — when a plane crashes, an earthquake strikes, a basketball game gets crazy, or Kanye West hijacks an awards show — Twitter should aim to become the first and only app that people load up to comment on the news.作为一个社交网络，Twitter享有众多用途，其中有一个用途，没谁比它更加合适：动态事件的全球聚会空间。Twitter的目标应当是：当现实世界中再次发生什么事情——飞机坠毁、地震来袭，一场篮球赛打得十分精彩，或者坎耶·韦斯特(Kanye West)抢走了一场颁奖典礼晚会的风头——它是人们关上的第一个、也是唯一一个应用于，来对新闻公开发表评论。

We live in an era dominated by time-shifted media. Just about everything worth watching can be watched later, when it’s more convenient. Even so, many of us find experiencing media communally to be a deeply meaningful experience — much more meaningful than watching it later. The desire for communal experiences explains why the Super Bowl is still a mega TV event, why ESPN has grown to become one of the most valuable media properties on the planet, and why HBO has turned Sunday nights into a marquee time for television.我们生活的这个时代是由时后移媒体主导的。一切有一点看的东西都可以晚点再行看，到便利的时候再行看。即便如此，依然有很多人实在，联合在媒体上取得体验具备深刻印象的意义——相比之下多达晚一点再行看。

联合体验的心愿，也说明了为什么超级碗依然是一个大型电视活动，为什么ESPN变为了这个星球上最有价值的媒体之一，为什么HBO让周日晚上沦为了一个电视狂欢节。Twitter is well-positioned to take advantage of this desire. It is already among the best places online for consuming news and commentary about live events. It would be ridiculous for many fans of the N.B.A. or of “Scandal” to watch TV without having Twitter nearby. Yet that behavior still remains a niche. Twitter’s next chief could change that, adding a few simple features that might transform the service into a required accessory for experiencing anything live.Twitter几乎有条件去利用这种意愿。

在消费动态活动的新闻和评论方面，它早已是最差的网上服务之一。对于很多NBA球迷或《丑闻》(Scandal)的粉丝来看，看电视的时候不关上Twitter是很荒谬的事。然而，这种作法仍未沦为主流。

Twitter的下一任首席执行官可能会转变这种状况，加到几个非常简单的功能，让Twitter沦为一个体验动态事件必不可少的应用于。How should Twitter do that? Tech journalists and tech investors have spilled thousands of tweets over the years in attempts to account for the general unpopularity of Twitter. Though Twitter has brought out an accelerating set of improvements over the last year, it remains a punishingly difficult service to get accustomed to and use. Twitter may be alone among large social networks in turning away more people away than it attracts. About 300 million people use it every month, but more than a billion have signed up and quit.Twitter应当如何做这一点呢？数年来，科技界的记者和投资者早已公开发表了数以千计的推文，企图说明Twitter总体上不得人心的原因。

尽管在过去一年里，Twitter早已加快脚步，发售了一套提高措施，它目前为止依然是一个无法熟知和用于的服务。Twitter有可能是唯一一个更有到的人比退出它的人较少的大型社交网络。每个月大约有3亿人在用于它，但有逾10亿登记用户仍然用于它。

Last week, in an extremely detailed post on his blog, the venture capitalist Chris Sacca, one of the earliest and larger investors in Twitter and an inveterate fan of the service, outlined the most straightforward recipe for Twitter to own live events. Much of what he called for could be easily done now. For every live event that generates tweets — whether it be news or a sporting event or a TV show — Twitter could create a dedicated section of the app.风险投资人克里斯·萨卡(Chris Sacca)是Twitter最先也较小的投资者之一，而且还是该服务的超级铁杆粉丝。上周，他在博客上公开发表了一篇十分详尽的文章，对于Twitter如何直播动态事件，所列了一些非常简单必要的方式。他建议的很多东西，现在都是可以精彩做到的。对于每一个可以生产量推文的动态事件——无论是新闻、体育赛事，还是电视节目——Twitter都可以在应用于中创立一个专门的板块。

Say the N.B.A. finals are heating up (which they are), and Twitter knows you like basketball. The app would send you a notification, tap to see the best tweets timed to the moment — with photos, videos, commentary and, of course, jokes all focused on that event. In other words, an instant community talking about something you are interested in, and one that you can’t help getting glued to, because it’s about something happening live.假设NBA总决赛正在加剧（事实的确如此），而Twitter告诉你讨厌篮球。该应用于就不会给你放一条通报，页面就可以查阅最差最不应时的推文——有照片、视频、评论，当然还有笑话，全都注重在那场篮球比赛上。

换句话说，这是一个动态社区，谈论你感兴趣的东西，你对它无法自拔，因为它谈的是正在再次发生的事情。Twitter does some of this now, but not nearly as well as it could. When the Golden State Warriors were playing the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 3 of the N.B.A. finals on Tuesday night, I saw people tweeting about the game when I loaded up the Twitter app. I’m not usually interested in basketball, but the tweets suggested this was an amazing game, so I stayed fixed to the screen.这方面的工作Twitter目前也做到了一些，但没它本理应的那么好。本周二晚上，金州勇士队(Golden State Warriors)和克利夫兰骑士队(Cleveland Cavaliers)展开NBA决赛的第3场比赛时，我关上Twitter应用于，看见人们在放关于这场比赛的推文。

我一般来说对篮球不怎么感兴趣，但推文里说道这场比赛打得很精彩，所以我要求看一看。Twitter made the experience difficult. I couldn’t see a running score, I didn’t know whose accounts to follow for the best stuff about the game, and basketball tweets were mixed in with ordinary posts about everything else. Tapping on some N.B.A. hashtags created a more focused feed, but it was still a messy experience, with lots of repetition, and, worse, boring tweets. The only reason I stuck with it is because I’m already a Twitter addict. Most people would have bailed.在Twitter上体验这个事情很艰难。我看到动态的比数减少，我不告诉该注目哪些帐号才能看见有关这场比赛的最精彩的内容，篮球方面的推文和所有其他一般性的推文混在在一起。

页面一些关于NBA的＃标签，可以看见重点更加集中于的推文，但依然非常恐慌，有很多反复内容，而且更加差劲的是，很多无趣的内容。我坚决看下去唯一的理由就是我早已是个“Twitter爱好者”了。大多数人有可能都会退出。

Mr. Sacca offered many obvious improvements to Twitter’s problems with live viewing. Twitter, he suggested, should hire human editors to create curated feeds for special events. It should offer these specialized feeds to users who don’t check in to the service very much, without requiring them to log in or to follow certain accounts permanently.对于Twitter在现场直播方面的问题，萨卡获取了很多显著的改良建议。他建议Twitter雇用编辑人员来规划尤其活动的推文。Twitter还应当获取一些专门的推文给那些不经常指定它的用户，而不是总是拒绝他们指定或注目某些帐户。

“Done right, live Twitter will have sports scores and TV listings front and center and will be the place everyone visits first to see how the game is going or when the show starts,” he wrote.“准确作法是，‘Twitter直播’不会有比赛成绩和电视节目表格，放到靠前和中心方位，大家年所就不会去这个地方，想到比赛展开得怎么样了，或者比赛什么时候开始，”他写到。The best analog for Mr. Sacca’s vision is a digital-era version of television or radio — a global coming together in an otherwise lifeless, anodyne digital world. Twitter’s next chief could build such a thing. And it could be glorious.萨卡的设想，就只不过是打造出一个数字时代的电视台或电台——在一个原本缺少生机、平淡无奇的数字世界中，让大家聚集一堂。

Twitter下一任首席执行官可以打造出这样的东西。那将是十分抢眼的。

本文来源：雷火·竞技-www.hinatame.com