Twitter was laid off employees turned into "avengers" and raised millions of competing products in 3 months

Source: TechCrunch

Author | Eric, editor | Zi

"The executives who were ousted by Musk are going to become his competitors."

The old subordinates were brutally fired by their superiors, and then started a new business and made a comeback... This scene is like a bridge in a cool drama, which really happens in the current business world.

Three months ago, Alphonzo "Phonz" Terrell, Twitter's former global head of social and editorial staff, was fired by Musk after taking over Twitter.

However, the former executive of the social giant clearly didn't want to rest, and on January 31 his new social media app, Spill, announced that it had raised $2.75 million in pre-seed funding, led by MaC Venture Capital, along with Kapor Center and Sunset Ventures.

Spill is creating a multicultural social media that embraces diverse cultures, with a particular emphasis on creating a freer and equal voice for Black, LGBT and other minorities, as well as overseas creators. Since the project was announced in mid-December, Spill has garnered 60,000 registrations.

On the other hand, Twitter, which was helmed by Musk, was not satisfactory. It has experienced a series of negative events such as layoffs that laid off half of its employees, financial tightness, and a large number of users, new "Twitter alternatives" are emerging, and Spill is also regarded as a strong opponent to snatch users from Twitter.

Of course, reality is not like cool dramas, which can fight monsters and upgrade all the way. Can Spill truly become a rising star in online social space? Can it continue to steal users from Twitter?

Everything has to be answered in its business model and strategy.

01 Social apps that speak up for black people

Three years ago, the death of Floyd, a black American man, by a white police officer kneeling on the neck caused an uproar around the world, and also focused the eyes of the world's people on the black community.

Terrell is also extremely concerned about the unfair treatment of black people on social media.

Prior to Twitter, Terrell worked for companies such as HBO and Showtime, with more than a decade of director-level experience in marketing and social content. As a black creative and technologist with a strong presence in social media, Terrell is also very precise in his insights into users.

He has seen black people make trendsetting contributions or great original content on platforms such as Twitter and TikTok, but they are ignored and often unable to obtain their own original hashtags. White creators, on the other hand, can easily obtain original copyrights to content that is "plagiarized".

In addition, the work of black creators is more likely to be stolen, and there are fewer opportunities for brand collaboration than white creators.

In addition, the hate speech detection algorithms used by most social platforms have obvious racial bias towards black people.

One study showed that African-Americans wrote tweets 1.5 times more likely to be flagged as offensive or hateful, and 2.2 times more likely to use AAVE (African American Vernacular English).

Current AI algorithms sometimes fail to understand the cultural background in which some African Americans speak certain languages. If the developers behind AI can't understand or don't try to understand, African-Americans are more vulnerable to unwarranted attacks.

Sensing the unfair treatment of black people on social media, Terrell tried to change that. He founded Spill to position it as "a real-time conversational platform that puts culture first" and wants to be a home for black users from the start.

Spill currently employs fewer than 10 people and has three strategic advisers, including former Twitter design chief Dantley Davis, #OscarsSoWhite创作者和DEI倡导者April Reign and civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson.

How will this team change the unfair treatment of black people on social media?

02 How does Spill speak up for black people?

Blockchain technology has been deeply applied by Terrell to Spill.

For example, Spill will use blockchain technology to track how posts spread and compensate the creators behind them. In this way, with the traceability and decentralization of blockchain, the works of black creators can be treated normally and fairly on social platforms, and they are not easy to be stolen. In addition, Spill plans to integrate blockchain technology into the credit history and related payments to creators.

However, Terrell is reluctant to think of Spill as a crypto project or Web3 company, and blockchain in Spill is just an underlying technical tool, not a gimmick to attract the market.

"It's not a Web3 thing," Terrell told TechCrunch, "and blockchain is used both to give creators credit and for us to build a model to automatically compensate them."

It's clear from one place that Terrell isn't willing to rub into blockchain and Web3 hotspots — he says creators' rewards are in dollars, not cryptocurrencies.

AI technology is also an important means for Spill to try to change the unfair social treatment of black people.

DeVaris Brown is Spill's CTO and former head of Twitter's product manager. He is extending the company's commitment to respecting cultural products into the structure of the platform. For example, he is building an AI moderation model that can incorporate black dialects to reduce unnecessary attacks on black people.

"For things that are considered offensive, we will be more conscious and more accurate because this is our life experience or learning experience," he said. ”

Brown and Terrell

In addition to intentionally following black people, Spill also has features for the general public similar to other social platforms. For example, like Twitter, Spill will have a live news feed where users can post "spills," a name that comes from the slang word "spill the tea," meaning "gossip."

Spill is also building a feature called "Tea Party," where users can host online and IRL events and then get rewards for boosting post followers, which can also be sold.

After the storm on Twitter, a number of social media platforms such as Mastodon, Hive, and Post News emerged, and Spill became one of the most "humane" with its unique humanistic care. Of course, in terms of volume, Spill is not as good as the others, let alone Twitter.

In the future, it is difficult to say whether Spill can grow into a platform to rival Twitter, after all, its strategic approach to focusing on black people is still niche. Allison Scott, CEO of the Kapoor Center, said, "We are pleased that Spill aims to address the significant challenges posed by existing social media platforms and use technology to build more diverse, equitable and inclusive online communities."

Ironically, TechCrunch reports that black founders are similarly overlooked in venture capital, raising just 1% of the total investment in 2022.

It can only be said that Terrell's entrepreneurial road is long and obstacles.

Interaction at the end of the article:

What do you think of Spill's development prospects? Leave a message in the comment area to tell us what you think~