September 9, 2013
Earlier today, we held a Twitterview with Chris Seline, founder of Twicsy. Here’s the extended interview. — IIA
What type of business do you run?
Twicsy is a Twitter picture search engine. Think of Google dedicated to Twitter pictures.
Does your business impact consumers? If so, how?
We give consumers a way to see what’s going on in the world in pictures. Twitter is an incredible source for firsthand accounts of everything from small parties to major world events, and Twicsy captures the public pictures to show you what’s happening right now.
How does broadband relate to your business?
Displaying numerous high resolution photos on a webpage requires lots of bandwidth and we are always trying to push the limits of what the users can download quickly. The faster the user’s connection the better their experience will be.
How has high-speed broadband or wireless broadband helped build, develop, transform or grow your business?
Prior to broadband, displaying multiple high resolution images on a web page would result in page load times in the minutes. That is not a good user experience! I believe Google Images was the first image search engine back in 2001. Back then all they displayed were tiny low resolution pictures.
Is spectrum, the invisible airwaves that carry voice and data signals to and from electronic devices, critical to the future of your business? If so, how?
I believe it is. As more people use the web on their mobile devices, the need for faster broadband accessible from anywhere becomes more and more important. In order for us to deliver a consistent user experience across all devices it is critical that the mobile broadband infrastructure improve to the level of the wired. We currently have over 30% of users access Twicsy from their mobile device, and that number is only going to go up.
How would a ‘spectrum crunch’ impact your business?
It would greatly affect our ability to deliver our service to an increasing number of mobile users. As cell phones rapidly replace desktops as consumers’ primary internet devices they will put larger demands on our mobile broadband infrastructure. A spectrum crunch would affect just about everybody!