Indeed, I feared they suggested something viable, but luckily, nothing of the sort.
A proprietary, centralized communication service is about the last thing the world needs, ripe for monopolistic abuse due to its network effect based lock-in, and at a high risk of attracting attention from all kinds of unwelcome organizations (intelligence agencies and the like), for no sensible reason at all, given that the transport layer below allows direct communication for federated and peer-to-peer services.
Turning back to Twitter, I like the service, and find 140 characters refreshingly brief. I don't know how to preserve it, but they've got huge mindshare and should be able to leverage that profitably.
A proprietary, centralized communication service is about the last thing the world needs, ripe for monopolistic abuse due to its network effect based lock-in, and at a high risk of attracting attention from all kinds of unwelcome organizations (intelligence agencies and the like), for no sensible reason at all, given that the transport layer below allows direct communication for federated and peer-to-peer services.