Tweetbot and Twitterrific Face the Cliff

Without commenting on the ramifications of Twitter’s decision here, except to say if I had been in their position, that’s not the business decision I would have made, I have a few observations on this.

1. These developers are for-profit enterprises. They are small businesses to be sure, but if they been acquired, would they have shared the proceeds with non-stockholders?

2. No one forced them into a subscription model. Seems to me like they had a choice between choosing an ongoing revenue stream and booking some multiple of that up front. Seems like, in retrospect, they chose poorly. But again, if that model had led to an exit event, I presume the upside would have accrued to equity alone. This is called capitalism.

2a. What am I missing where pro rata refunds are not the obvious, fair, elegant solution? That just seems like an appropriate outcome for everyone involved.

3. They built a business on someone else’s platform. Why should their customers bail them out of that decision?

I am truly sorry for the affected individuals. This must be gutting. But I don’t really see how placing this burden on people who paid for a service they didn’t receive is the right outcome.