Twitter No Longer Wants To Be A Social Networking Site?

By Joe Nichols | Apr 29, 2016 09:23 AM EDT

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Twitter's long history of trying to define or redefine itself seems to be at a close. There is a report that said it is now categorizing itself as a "News" app instead of just a "Social Networking" app. The report based its deduction on the fact that it chose such category in the iOS App store.

As it is, Twitter experienced a very bad quarter when it missed its revenue projections. Even when it has beaten user growth numbers, the site is still hovering at about 310 million users.

Jack Dorsey, CEO, said in its earnings call that his company is all about what's happening in real time. Therefore, transforming from social to news makes sense.

For a majority of its users, the site is more about watching what other people do and reading what they say rather than being a participant of what's going on.

So, Twitter has found a way to perk up its numbers after its dismal quarter performance. Instead of fighting Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Pinterest, Messenger and similar social media networks, it is now opting out of the overcrowded "Social Networking" category into the "News" category.

In the previous category, it was ranked #5, but in its present category, it is now ranked #1.

The big change elicited a two-fold effect. Being number five on stats for social networking is nothing to be ashamed of, but being ranked number one app in the news category is better with regards to App Store visibility.

When new iPhones are being setup by their users, they will be more likely to pick up the number one app on the list.

Secondly, Twitter being number one in the news category can have an impact on its "Overall" ranking. When this happens, it would provide better visibility in the top "Free" apps chart in the App Store. The site is currently at number 28 in this chart.

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