Keith Coleman Named Product Chief Of Twitter
On Thursday, Dec. 1, Twitter acquired a small startup and hired on its founder as its new product chief, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Keith Coleman – founder and chief executive of Yes Inc. – was appointed Twitter’s vice president of product. In addition to Coleman, Twitter is also hiring the remaining staff of Yes Inc., a two-year-old startup company designed to make apps.
Following the purchase, Yes Inc. issued the following statement on its site.
“Yes! We’re joining forces with Twitter.
“When we came together to form Yes, we set out to build products to bring people closer to one another. From Frenzy, which brought friends together in real life, to WYD, which has made so many of us feel closer to our more remote friends and family, it has been awesome to be able to brighten our users’ days, every day. And to all of our users who have helped shape our apps via feedback and suggestions: thank you! It has been an amazing journey together.
“Today, we’re excited to announce a new chapter in the journey: Yes will be joining Twitter! Our team has always admired Twitter, a product that brings the whole world closer. From elections to revolutions, Olympics to arts, it connects people across the globe around the events that are happening right now. Twitter also speaks to our love of working at a global scale. Prior to forming Yes, our team spent their careers building products like Gmail, Android, PayPal and others that serve hundreds of millions of people, and we’re excited to bring our efforts to connecting the world at a huge scale.
“What does this mean for our apps? In the coming weeks, we’ll be shutting down our apps so that we can focus entirely on our new efforts. We are sad to see them go, but excited about the future. Thank you to all of you who have loved them as much as we have and contributed along the way!”
I’m excited to announce our team is joining Twitter. Can't wait to work with @jack, @adam_messinger & team! First day is Monday – let's go!
— Keith Coleman ??? (@kcoleman) December 1, 2016
Couldn't be more pleased to welcome @kcoleman as VP of Product. He and his team are great additions to Twitter. Welcome onboard!
— Adam Messinger (@adam_messinger) December 1, 2016
Yes! Keith and team are joining Twitter to help lead and strengthen our service! https://t.co/5aFouFxTsh
— jack (@jack) December 1, 2016
A Twitter spokeswoman declined to disclose the deal price.
According to WSJ, Coleman will be Twitter’s sixth product chief since 2007 and fourth since the company’s initial public offering in November, 2013. Before founding Yes Inc., Coleman worked at Alphabet Inc.’s Google, where he oversaw products like Gchat, Gmail, and Inbox.
Twitter has been operating without a full-time product chief since Kevin Weil’s departure in January.
Within the past year, Twitter has been shuffling its executive ranks. Following CEO Dick Costolo’s resignation last summer, the company waited a few months before finally appointing co-founder Jack Dorsey as its permanent chief executive.
Twitter announced four executive departures in January, including Weil.
Was really hoping to talk to Twitter employees about this later this week, but want to set the record straight now: pic.twitter.com/PcpRyTzOlW
— jack (@jack) January 25, 2016
In October, Twitter disclosed plans to cut up to 9 percent of its staff – approximately 350 workers. According to the Washington Post, the company cast the layoffs as part of a broader restructuring that would impact its marketing, sales, and partnership teams the hardest.
Still, Twitter’s revenue for the third quarter just barely exceeded the company’s expectations, totaling $616 million for the three-month period between July and September – up 8.2 percent compared to revenue of $569 million during the third quarter last year.
In hopes of moving forward, Twitter executives pushed mobile video advertising. For the second consecutive quarter, video advertising was not only the largest, but the fastest-growing revenue category.
Twitter recently reported that it had an average of 3.3 million unique views during its livestream of the second and third presidential debates.
According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted this summer, 24 percent of adults turned to social media posts from Trump and Mrs. Clinton for messages from the candidates – a significantly greater percentage than those who viewed their campaign websites or opened their emails.
[Featured Image by Bethany Clarke/Getty Images]
