Tweepi Bites the Dust: Courtesy of Elon Musk
Hello to all of you, our fantastic Tweepi users,
Twitter's new policy of charging approximately 1 cent per tweet accessed via their API has made Tweepi's business model unfeasible. We're giving it 7 days to see if Twitter has a change of heart or responds to our pleas. If no solution materializes by April 14, 2023, we'll be sending pro-rated refunds to all our paying customers.
Update 14 April, 2023: We processed 1000+ refunds via 2Checkout today. All customers should receive their pro-rated refunds within 5-7 working days.
So, What Happened?
In case you haven't heard, Twitter has decided that each tweet obtained via their API is worth approximately a shiny penny ($0.01/tweet). See the following screenshots.
Tweepi's unique approach is to process thousands of tweets per user account each day, feed them to our AI model, and then offer users nifty suggestions to grow their accounts and connect with potential customers.
Let's do some quick math: 5000 tweets per user per day x 30 days a month x approximately $0.01 USD per tweet = a staggering $1,500 per Tweepi account per month! That's about an infinity times more than what Tweepi was designed for.
This change has effectively tossed our entire system architecture and business model out the window. So, unless the Twitter gods show mercy within the next week, we're toast!
What's Next? Refunds Coming Your Way
We're giving it 7 days to see if Twitter reconsiders their pricing or responds to our messages with a reasonable API access solution.
If we're still at a dead end by next Friday, April 14, 2023, we'll send all our current customers pro-rated refunds of their unused paid Tweepi subscriptions. We'll calculate the refund starting from April 6, 2023---the day the Twitter API went dark for us.
After 15 Years, What a Hilarious Way to Go
Here's the kicker: just last July 2022, Elon tried to back out of buying Twitter, citing spam and the low quality of tweets in aggregate.
Fast forward 9 months, and suddenly a tweet is a precious commodity worth approximately $0.01 each---even though, let's be honest, less than 5% of them are worth reading.
And Finally, a Heartfelt Thank You!
Thank you for using Tweepi and being the most amazing customers. It's been one heck of a ride!
As a parting gift, here's a screenshot of our first landing page back in 2009.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions.
Sending waves of love and feel-good vibes,
Amer Kawar, Alex Sayegh & the Tweepi team