In the early 2010s there were two mighty giants in the social media landscape: Facebook and Twitter. One behemoth was scrapping its way in an attempt to be a third. This company was backed by lots of money, a thoughtful design, and a single focus to topple the others. It wanted to be king.
But this is not about Google with their Plus endeavor or even the weirdly-limited Path wherein you were only allowed 50 friends. This is the story of a scrappy startup that set its sights on Twitter. A company that felt that enough people were willing to pay for a social network. It was a company that learned the hard way that the opposite is true.
This is the story of App.net.
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