Twitter API Being Sunset? Is it a big deal or a non-issue?

In the past week, Twitter announced they would be sunsetting the Twitter API. As a newer developer, wish that I had more time to build tools on the current Twitter API. When the Twitter Dev team made this announcement I was in the process of building a python bot, that would publish out health inspection data from businesses in the city of Chicago. We do not have full details of what the revised Twitter API plan will look like yet. My hunch suggests Twitter Blue will be required. 

As someone with limited free time, I am frustrated the change was announced with less than a weeks notice. Publishing so much information and making it available for free to the entire world is a major endeavor. Twitter is a gateway into an entire world - my perspective is that sunsetting the free API must not have been an easy decision.

As I build out new projects in the future, for personal use, as a hobby, or as a portfolio project – I will spend more time scoping out the cost, maintenance and risks to a project. It is never fun, shutting down or rebuilding a tool. But in an interconnected world, making use of external API comes with risks that may require the API to change with the business and technical owner.

In my opinion, the business changes at Twitter are one piece of a larger puzzle we will see in the next 5 years. I predict that we will see more companies monetizing "free" services. I do not believe maintaining multi-billion dollar technology companies on advertising first business models is sustainable. My perspective implies many of the major companies will begin monetizing free digital products, services and APIs

Here are free online tools and services I believe will be monetized in the next five years: 

• Your email(s) address
• Map services
• Cloud storage
• Productivity tools such as Google Docs and Office 365
• Accounts on social networks 

Google Maps and Apple Maps did not become accessible to the masses until 2010. As a consumer with an interest in business - the economics required to maintaining global maps services appears to be expensive, time consuming, and labor-intensive. With the proliferation of street view and business services, that consumers demand be increasingly up to date, should these services continue to be free? Shouldn't business owners pay to display the most up to date information for the largest audience of customers? 

Another example would be social networks and emails. Considering that we pay to maintain access to our phone number – one can presume there is an immense value in maintaining access to our email address, our gateway and identity to the rest of the world. Should we continue to allow email and social networking to be free, enabling bad actors to abuse systems we believed would generate innovation and increase communication? The "promise" of the free and open internet is often called into question with the proliferation of extremism, CASM, and highly objectionable content throughout the web. The internet has no promise because there is not a global social contract on the world wide web.

Most importantly, monetizing digital tools via subscriptions models would unlock new value for thes these businesses, shareholders and customers. Management would instantly receive an infusion of capital for new and existing projects without resources. Shareholders reap the benefits of newly funded income streams. Consumers would lose a few bucks in the near term and discover improvements to tools they love that were previously unimaginable. If executed correctly, paid subscriptions could be a "win-win" for everyone. In my opinion, Twitter is ahead of the curve - more than we realize.