Here's how Jack Dorsey reacted when asked about Facebook's desire to 'own' live video
Unfortunately for Twitter, Facebook, which is roughly five times the size of Twitter, has also decided it wants to be the place for users to watch live video.
During Twitter's Q1 conference call on Tuesday, an analyst asked CEO Jack Dorsey about it, inquiring how Facebook's desire to "own" live would impact Twitter.
The query seemed to animate Dorsey, who launched into a lengthy rebuttal that began with an unfortunate slip of the tongue (bolded for emphasis):
Dorsey's main defense against Facebook basically boiled down to three key points (of course, Dorsey never directly mentioned his competitor by name):
- Twitter has more experience than Facebook in the live game
- Twitter already owns the popular live video broadcasting app Periscope, whereas Facebook is trying to create a new app from scratch
- Twitter specializes in the real-time conversations that accompany big live events like sports
All that may be true, but Facebook's sheer size gives it a huge advantage that's hard to understate.
To Twitter's credit, its snappy, real-time newsfeed still gives it a huge advantage when it comes to live events. Just try following a big basketball game or presidential election debate on Twitter and Facebook, and it's clear that the former is a much more enjoyable experience.
You can read all about Twitter's Q1 quarterly report, which missed Wall Street targets, here.
And here's Dorsey's full response to the Facebook question:
We've been doing live for ten years and we believe we have a leadership potential in it...we have a leadership position in it. But it's not just about showing a live event, it's also about hosting a conversation around a live event.