{"id":2941,"date":"2017-01-18T23:06:04","date_gmt":"2017-01-18T23:06:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/google-acquires-fabric-developer-platform-and-team-from-twitter.html"},"modified":"2017-01-18T23:06:04","modified_gmt":"2017-01-18T23:06:04","slug":"google-acquires-fabric-developer-platform-and-team-from-twitter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/google-acquires-fabric-developer-platform-and-team-from-twitter.html","title":{"rendered":"Google acquires Fabric developer platform and team from Twitter"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

Google is taking over<\/a> Twitter\u2019s mobile app developer platform Fabric, as well as its Crashlytics crash reporting system, Answers mobile app analytics, Digits SMS login system and FastLane development automation system. Twitter launched Fabric as a modular SDK in 2014 to allow developers to pick and choose different tools to improve their apps, and it now serves apps reaching 2.5 billion users built by 580,000 developers.<\/p>\n

But as Twitter tries to get into better financial shape, it\u2019s cutting non-essential divisions. By passing the platform off to Google<\/a>, it can remove the costs of running Fabric without screwing over its developers by suddenly shutting it down. Google will continue to operate Fabric and its related tools, and developers shouldn\u2019t have to do anything to support the transition.<\/p>\n

It begs the question, is Twitter trying to slim down to take another swing at getting acquired?<\/p>\n

Thinner Twitter<\/h2>\n

After acquisition talks last year failed, Twitter must become self-sustaining. Basically, if it doesn\u2019t make enough money, it\u2019s getting the axe. That\u2019s why Vine got shut down yesterday and relaunched as Vine Camera, which no longer hosts videos because that can get expensive. Now it\u2019s Fabric\u2019s turn, as Twitter apparently sees enterprise developer tool sales as an unlucrative detour from its core ad and data business.<\/p>\n

Twitter tells me it will continue to run and invest in its other developer-facing products, such as its Publisher platform, Twitter Kit, Gnip, TweetDeck, plus its Public APIs and Ads APIs because they are tied directly to its core business and align with its priorities for 2017.<\/p>\n

\"fabric\"<\/p>\n

The Fabric team announced \u201cToday we enter the next chapter for Fabric and are pleased to announce that we\u2019ve signed an agreement for Fabric to be acquired by Google and for our team to join Google\u2019s Developer Products Group, working with the Firebase team.\u201d Google\u2019s Firebase product manager Francis Ma writes, \u201cOur missions align closely: help developers build better apps and grow their business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Terms of the deal weren\u2019t disclosed, and Twitter refused to provide more detail upon request.\u00a0Digits<\/a> shall remain under Twitter\u2019s control during the transition period.<\/p>\n

Crashlytics will become Firebase\u2019s main crash reporting tool. Founded in 2011, Twitter acquired Crashlytics in 2013 for\u00a0$38.2 million. After six years, co-founder Jeff Seibert will be stepping back from Crashlytics, which will now be led by Twitter\u2019s VP of engineering, Rich Paret.<\/p>\n

Though Twitter itself isn\u2019t allowed in China, Crashlytics counted internet giants like Alibaba and Baidu as users. Twitter still sells advertising space to Chinese companies, but it has now sold its biggest bridge to the country.<\/p>\n

\"screen-shot-2017-01-18-at-10-57-25-am\"<\/p>\n

While Twitter initially charged for enterprise access to tools like Crashlytics and Answers, it later made them free. The strategy seemed to be that if more developers were part of the Twitter ecosystem, they\u2019d build apps that piggyback on the microblogging service and provide it with extra functionality and platform lock-in.<\/p>\n

But that strategy may have proved too indirect for Twitter as it tries to cut losses, which were $103 million in Q3 2016. Facebook similarly shut down its Parse <\/a>mobile development platform last year, and its founder Ilya Sukhar today tweeted that he was jealous that it didn\u2019t get sold to Google like Fabric.<\/p>\n

\n

Kudos to the folks responsible here. This isn’t easy. And I’m jelly. https:\/\/t.co\/YeGSjr8CXv<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Ilya Sukhar (@ilyasu) January 18, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Will more Twitter divisions get cut, sold off, or rolled in? Periscope, for example, could sensibly become Twitter Live, since Twitter finally just added the ability to broadcast straight from its own app. If the dedicated livestream discovery and consumption features of Periscope\u2019s own app don\u2019t pull their weight, it might make sense to shrink the team and make the product entirely part of Twitter\u2019s app.<\/p>\n

If Twitter can reduce its headcount, ditch superflous divisions, and reinforce its core product and business, it might have another shot at selling to someone with the resources to make it a financial success.<\/p>\n

Devs trust Google, not Twitter<\/h2>\n

Google, on the other hand, is deeply focused on turning mobile app developers into paid customers by upselling them from free dev tools to paid tiers. It acquired LaunchKit in July to give devs easier ways to create App Store screenshots and websites for their mobile apps.<\/p>\n

Having watched Amazon\u2019s success with AWS, Google sees opportunities in selling \u00a0its robust backend infrastructure to developers who don\u2019t want to build every piece of an app\u2019s architecture themselves.<\/p>\n

\"screen-shot-2017-01-18-at-11-20-08-am\"<\/p>\n

This won\u2019t be the first time Twitter developers feel like it pulled a fast one on it. In the 2008-2012 era, when Twitter desperately needed help getting off the ground and establishing hardcore usage, it offered APIs for developers to build their own Twitter clients.<\/p>\n

But at the end of 2012, as it sought to ramp up its advertising business in its own clients\u2019 apps, it suddenly restricted API access<\/a>, essentially murdering several tools that developers had spent years building to Twitter\u2019s benefit. Then Twitter did the same to its firehose data resellers like DataSift, cutting them off in favor of charging for access to the Gnip service it acquired.<\/p>\n

Jack Dorsey later apologized for Twitter thrashing developers this way, but after pulling the rug out from under them, the lack of trust in the community hampered Fabric\u2019s success. Now with it pawning off Fabric to Google, it\u2019s hard to imagine developers putting much faith in Twitter going forward.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunch\/social\/~3\/8x6PUZakf04\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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