Saving a 15-Year-Old Web Service from Ending
Overview
- Explore the captivating journey of Twilog and Togetter's merger to avert closure.
- Understand the profound impact of new API fees on established web services.
- Witness the innovative technical strategies that powered a successful integration.
The Challenge in Japan
In Japan, a dramatic crisis emerged for two beloved web services, Twilog and Togetter. For 15 glorious years, these platforms empowered users to seamlessly archive their tweets and craft compelling narratives from them. However, the acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk turned this idyllic scenario upside down. Following the takeover, Twitter rolled out unexpected changes, including steep new fees for using their API. This financial burden soared to an astonishing figure of more than $600,000 per month, triggering widespread panic among both developers and loyal users who depended on these platforms for their digital memories and social engagements.
The Merger Approach
Amidst this looming threat, the proactive team at Togetter devised a bold and strategic masterplan: acquiring Twilog. This game-changing decision was not merely about survival—it was a mission to preserve invaluable user experiences and maintain community connections that had blossomed over the years. As negotiations kicked off, enthusiasm soared, and within a matter of weeks, the teams successfully reached an agreement, announcing the merger by the end of March 2023. This timely intervention sparked renewed hope, not just within the company, but among countless users who feared being uprooted from a service they cherished.
Technical Transition
Yet, as the merger unfolded, the path to integration was strewn with technical challenges that demanded ingenuity and agility. Initially, Twilog functioned on dedicated servers, which provided reliable performance but came with high costs that would inevitably rise upon moving to cloud solutions like Amazon Web Services (AWS). Consequently, the team had to make a decisive pivot: rewriting their entire Ruby codebase into PHP for better compatibility with Togetter’s established environment. This was no small feat. With a compelling deadline of just two months, developers worked around the clock to ensure nothing fell through the cracks. Their mission was clear: to retain all existing functionalities and enhance user experience while innovating the platform for future growth.
References
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