After reading the various good and bad blog posts regarding tweet.sg, I shall provide some factual evidence with a dash of history lesson and my personal opinion at the end.
Tweet.sg was first set up in November 2008 as a “project” of sorts by Jymster to allow local users to send their SMS updates to a local number for security and cost reasons, after testing and ensuring that the system works perfectly. Back then, it was using a different domain, but it was moved to a new one to avoid issues with cybersquatting. Initial sign ups were slow, and it only had 36 users in the time between November 2008 and January 2009.
The “competitors” for local services to update twitter.com twits via SMS emerged after a blog post on the website about running your own gateway in February 2009 – heck, Jymster even took time to make a new page on the blog so that it was more visible to readers in March 2009. Additionally, a quick domain whois showed that the other two “competitors” that I could Google up registered their domains after that blog post by Jymster – interestingly, one of the “competitors” registered their domain 5 days after the March 2009 blog posting, so what’s the objective in that? I’ll leave it for you to decide.
Jymster made changes to his system to ensure that the security of the SMS update system is intact and users would not have to send their passwords over everytime they sent a message using tweet.sg’s gateway some time in April 2009, despite the fact that there were “competitors” in the field.
Then came the AWARE saga, which saw a flurry of activity which made it to the top 10 twitter trends (because it was dead in the middle of the night in the States at the time the AWARE EGM at Suntec began), and tweet.sg’s gateway was still working, although it was tested to the limit – quite an amazing feat, with one person administering the server, as compared to the other “competitors”, since I have no data on how the other “competitors” managed their gateway during that time.
Finally, after about 8 months of running the project, Jymster has now closed the SMS update system to the public to ensure that his gateway will not be overloaded and lag in updating twitter, and also (hopefully) to have less help requests from users.
I find this story strangely familiar, as I recall that there was a time where people used to share their files online (before the authorities came down hard, and the copyright law was made a criminal offence) and users would download them for free without so much as a “thank you”. There were a few people that were being nasty to the individual sharers, but they got banned from the system for pissing the individual sharers off (Note: the story that I mentioned should be taken in the context of an example of online services, and not as an incentive to commit a criminal offence). Those were the days where users knew the risks when downloading a file from the sharer’s server.
Yes, some of you may say that its not good for business reputation. But this isn’t a business.
Online reputation is lost, some might say. I would say yes, but does it really matter, since its not a business? Personal reputation might be lost, but I don’t think he has lost any – in fact I would think that he has gained more reputation in my opinion, especially so after I’ve done a little research on tweet.sg’s history. A true pioneer of local developments in the online world, and one who is not afraid to stand up for his own personality, just like DK99 of ping.sg, but sadly lost to the mindless sheep that do not stop to think, and blindly agree with other people’s opinions.
Some of you might have boycotted tweet.sg because the server admin is a nasty guy and announced your decision to the whole world. I respect you for your decision, but Jymster doesn’t care for lost users – in fact, he would like to see as little users as possible in order to reduce his “operating costs”. Come to think of it, can you name one “competitor” that existed to provide local SMS twit updates to twitter.com before tweet.sg, because I can’t find any with my resources. If there isn’t any, then I can say that without Jymster and tweet.sg, such services (updating twits to twitter.com via SMS) wouldn’t even exist locally. I know that there are quadrillions of websites offering local services to update blogs via SMS (well, so much for that hype) which pre-dates the creation of tweet.sg, but here I’m referring to websites offering local services to update twitter.com twits via SMS. It’s not about the technology behind it or who is copying who (in fact, I stated that it is for you to decide earlier on), but its about how tweet.sg has attracted “competitors” to the new market of offering services to update twitter.com twits via SMS. I bear no grudge towards any of the other “competitors”, and instead I applaud them for their willingness to step into this new market to provide similar and better services for the locals here. However, the possibility still remains that if not for tweet.sg, there wouldn’t be any “competitors” that you can sign up for updating your twitter.com twits via SMS locally.
You get nasty “service” for free service, some of you might ascertain upon reading other users’ opinions. True, but that is out of context – Jymster has already stated in the blog at tweet.sg and also on the FAQ page that the service is 100% free, and there is absolutely no guarantee there will be 100% uptime, or a “Yes Man” every time you contact Jymster. One strange thing is that despite these risks, people still signed up for the service. What puzzles me even more is the fact that there’s an FAQ page on the website, and some of them ask silly questions about the system, so wherein does the fault lie?
With this, Your Honour, I rest my case.
EDIT: Added a little bit more detail to clarify the context in which the “competitors” to tweet.sg are, instead of “alluding to copying“. Thanks, serenelee86!