Imagine for a second that you’re Howard Lindzon, founder of StockTwits. Your company uses the Twitter API search on stock ticker symbols. For instance, clicking on $AAPL provides financial information about Apple’s stock price, financials, and the like.

And then you wake up today to find that Twitter likes your idea so much that it’s effectively copied it. Aside from hashtags, Twitter now supports cashtags.

Mr. Lindzon: Welcome to the Age of the Platform. Not every company can be TweetDeck. Twitter is the very definition of a frenemy. Without it, your company couldn’t have existed. Now, the future of your company is in doubt.

Like this? You might find these posts interesting:

• More Cross-Platform Pollination
• Twitter, Ecosystems, and the Age of the Platform
• The Wrong Questions
• Twitter 2.0: Becoming More “Platformy”
• Ecosystems Extend Platforms