> Twitter's developer API followed a typical pattern: do anything you can to get traction for your platform. This includes being "open" to encourage developers to build stuff on your platform. Then, when you don't need them anymore, ditch them.

From my recollections.. Twitter was a company that had a user base, but no plans or strategy to become actually profitable off that base. They, like many companies at the time, seemed to assume that if you just build the big "next generation open platform" that money would just start falling from the sky... somehow.

Ultimately, the red line meets the black line, and you have to turn to VCs who push you into the most obvious solution: Shut down all the "open platform" dead weight and start pushing advertising.

I don't think these are intentional moves but rather the natural consequence of certain types of silicon valley business "plans."