Twilio
Summary
Telephony and messaging platform for developers, aimed at marketing, operations and customer service use cases.
Type of organisation: Publicly-listed company (or group)
Market share: One of the leading products (#3-7)
Pricing: Too complex to detail
Factors driving pricing: Additional features, More audience (e.g. more subscribers, traffic)
Skills needed to set-up: Software developer
Skills needed to use: Cannot tell
Type of organisation: Publicly-listed company (or group)
Market share: One of the leading products (#3-7)
Pricing: Too complex to detail
Factors driving pricing: Additional features, More audience (e.g. more subscribers, traffic)
Skills needed to set-up: Software developer
Skills needed to use: Cannot tell
Pros
Open Source alternatives available
Releases new features regularly
Clear data policies
Allows data export
Allows data deletion
Shares diversity data
Cons
Newsworthy business issues/challenges - Twilio Stock Won’t Be In Turnaround Mode Anytime Soon
Newsworthy security breaches - “Eavesdropper” Vulnerability Exposes Millions of Private Conversations
Lacks accessibility statement
Full Product Data Collection
Data collected January-February 2020
| Product name | Twilio |
| Product URL | https://www.twilio.com/ |
| Parent organisation | N/A |
| Workflow category | Audience engagement & monetisation |
| Date product founded | 2008 |
| Product description | Telephony and messaging platform for developers, aimed at marketing, operations and customer service use cases. |
| What type of company or organisation is the product owned by? | Publicly-listed company (or group) |
| Is the company profit-making? | Yes, profitable |
| How is this product funded? | Subscriptions |
| What market share does the tool have? | One of the leading products (#3-7) |
| Is there an Open Source alternative in this product space? | Yes. Wazo |
| When did the company last release new features? | December 2019: General availability of Video Javascript SDK 2.0 |
| Have they shared details of the product roadmap? | No |
| Is there talk of the product raising further investment? | No |
| Is there talk of the product being acquired? | No |
| Have there been any newsworthy business issues or challenges in the last 12 months? | Yes. Twilio Stock Won’t Be In Turnaround Mode Anytime Soon |
| Is there a pricing model listed on the website? | Yes |
| How clear & transparent is this pricing model? | Partly: some pricing listed; must speak to salesperson to confirm |
| What is the range of prices offered? | Pricing is pay-as-you-go, with volume discounts and committed-use discounts available. |
| What factors drive higher pricing? | Additional features, More audience (e.g. more subscribers, traffic) |
| What skills are needed to get this tool set up & usable? | Software developer |
| What skills are needed to USE this tool day-to-day? | Cannot tell |
| Does this tool use proprietary file formats for saving documents & outputs? | Cannot tell |
| Is the product reliant on 3rd-party APIs or interoperability to function? | No |
| Have there been any newsworthy technical issues in the last 3 years? | No |
| How clear is the Terms of Service for users (i.e. publishing customers)? | Technical, legalistic TOS |
| Does the product have a data collection & usage policy on its website? (Can be a GDPR statement)? | Yes, comprehensive. |
| Is their data policy “GDPR everywhere”? | Yes, GDPR compliant globally |
| Does the product require your audience to sign-in to use it? | N/A not an audience-facing tool |
| IF SIGN IN REQUIRED: Does audience sign-in use 3rd party platforms? | N/A not an audience-facing tool |
| Does the public product website mention how to export or transfer your data to another service? | Yes: Export publisher metadata |
| Does the public product website mention how to delete your data? | Yes: for publisher data only |
| Have there been any newsworthy security breaches with this product in the last 3 years? | Yes. “Eavesdropper” Vulnerability Exposes Millions of Private Conversations |
| Does the company have an accessibility statement on its website? | No / cannot find |
| Does the company release information on the diversity of the workforce? | Yes |