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It annoys me that folks with a poverty of imagination are creating clones of existing apps that have already solved the problem. Another Twitter but open or Facebook with proper privacy..etc. Fail!.

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This is more a protocol than an app. In the early days of computer networking lots of companies had their own proprietary email systems that couldn't talk to each other. Then an open email protocol was created and email became so much more than an interdepartmental communications tool.

This is much the same. Who knows the types of exciting tools it might spawn?

existing apps that have already solved the problem

Obviously Twitter doesn't solve it for everyone, otherwise you wouldn't see these sort of efforts.

"X, but Y" is a perfectly reasonable business model. Almost any product isn't particularly unique, from cars to shavers to operating systems to knives.

Neither Twitter nor Facebook really tread virgin soil, either.

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