Tweeter Pan

Tweeter Pan

Everybody wants to know how Twitter will make millions. But what if it doesn’t want to grow up?

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Submitted by C.G. Lynch on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 11:46am.

User base broad enough?

This was a very solid analysis. As a Twitter fan, I have to say that I sometimes wonder about its long term prospects. Though as you mention they have improved a lot of their server/scaling issues, I still wonder if Twitter is merely for tech nerds and the journalists and bloggers who are more than happy to keep writing about them. Facebook is a broad social networking technology, thus making monetization much easier in many cases and making its long term outlook more secure. But I wonder how/if the Twitter will hit a broader audience (http://tinyurl.com/5lgvpk).

Thanks again for this post.

-Chris

Submitted by david wayne osedach on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 10:24am.

twittering dollars

The beloved upstart has yet to bring in revenue. There should be no problem incorporating advertising as it grows. People love twitter!

Submitted by OhNoNotAgain on Thu, 10/09/2008 - 11:32am.

Venture Capitalist, or Patron?

I wonder if Twitter is really viewing the Venture Capitalists who poured $15 mil into them as people they'll have to pay back 10-fold, or if they're viewing these moneybanks as renaissance-style patrons interested in attaching their name to a cultural legacy. Google has provided a pretty good model for how Web-patronage can be successful: use profit to supplement services that can't ever possibly be profitable (Google Earth, Chrome). Twitter COULD easily be profitable (even if they just sold shirts and tote bags with pictures of the Fail Whale on them), but by foregoing profitability they're establishing themselves as a service more akin to a NY library than Times Square. Eventually they can grow to the extent that someone like Google or Comcast may just buy them for a ton of money simply so that their name can be associated with the success.