Restricting users to 140 characters wasn't just a good idea because of SMS character limits, it also forced users to create content that had a far greater chance of being shareable.
The traditional blogging platforms that came before Twitter generally failed as broad-base social media platforms because of the walls of text people would write. If you're an average person, nobody wants to read your wall of text about some childhood experience, but people might be interested in your one-liners about news, celebrities, friends, etc.
I think the changes that are causing them to consider a 10,000-character limit are:
1. A larger percentage of Twitter traffic is celebrities/marketers, and people trying to connect with celebrities/marketers (not friends connecting with friends). Character limits don't matter for this traffic because quality/virality is either guaranteed (celebrities/marketers) or irrelevant (consumers trying to connect to celebrities/marketers).
2. It's difficult to sell text as short-form shareable content now that everyone's sharing images, gifs, and really short videos. If the text isn't going to be shareable, they might as well lift the character limit and expand its utility as a general feature.
Personally I like the idea. The way I use Twitter is to see what public figures and organizations are saying publicly, so a higher character limit is 100% upside for me.
The traditional blogging platforms that came before Twitter generally failed as broad-base social media platforms because of the walls of text people would write. If you're an average person, nobody wants to read your wall of text about some childhood experience, but people might be interested in your one-liners about news, celebrities, friends, etc.
I think the changes that are causing them to consider a 10,000-character limit are:
1. A larger percentage of Twitter traffic is celebrities/marketers, and people trying to connect with celebrities/marketers (not friends connecting with friends). Character limits don't matter for this traffic because quality/virality is either guaranteed (celebrities/marketers) or irrelevant (consumers trying to connect to celebrities/marketers).
2. It's difficult to sell text as short-form shareable content now that everyone's sharing images, gifs, and really short videos. If the text isn't going to be shareable, they might as well lift the character limit and expand its utility as a general feature.
Personally I like the idea. The way I use Twitter is to see what public figures and organizations are saying publicly, so a higher character limit is 100% upside for me.