Twitter's Real Problem: Identity Crisis?

The New York Times columnist Nick Bilton recently published an article on Twitter Inc TWTR titled ".@Twitter. Who Do You Think You Are?" in which he described how difficult it is to define what Twiiter is and what it does.

Bilton was on CNBC recently to elaborate on his article and to discuss how so many things related to Twitter are ambiguous.

Who's In-Charge?

"I mean, look the reality is that when you look at Facebook Inc FB, Mark Zuckerberg, is clearly in-charge," Bilton said. "He runs the product, he runs the company. He puts forward the direction. When you look at Twitter, who is in-charge? I don't know. They have had 3 CEOs that doesn't include if you count the first co-founder, Noah Glass, who was kind of overseeing the company from the beginning was pushed out."

He continued, " They have had 8 product people, 7 of who have been fired or forced to quit. CFOs, COOs have been fired. The turmoil and the change within that company is [exasperating], it's kind of mind boggling to think about. And then, if you look at the board, you have 37.5 percent of the Board is ex-CEOs of Twitter, then the other half of the Board, they don't even tweet."

Can't Answer What Twitter Is

Bilton defended his position that he is not asking what Twitter is only because the stock is down, saying, " Google Inc GOOGL primarily is a search engine and they have a lot of other umbrella products underneath that. Facebook Inc FB primarily is a social network where you can connect with your friends and your families and they have purchased a number of products under that, all communication related or with Oculus maybe entertainment related."

"But when you look at Twitter, the core product, I cannot tell you what it is. Is it a social network? Is it a place for conversation? Is it a place for a bunch of media people to talk about how wonderful they are? I don't know and one of the things that I realized is when people say to me, people that are not on Twitter and they say, 'what is it?' I really cannot answer that question," Bilton said.