Comments on: Twitter's risk of ubiquity

The microblogging service runs the risk of becoming too prevalent without a clear path to revenue. There is a risk in becoming ubiquitous before you make money.

[hymanroth]

I would say the fuzziness surrounding twitter's business model is entirely intentional, for the following reasons:

1) At the moment all they're interested in is usage. Users beget users, as per the network effect. The more users, the higher the company valuation, REGARDLESS of the business model. In other words, I'm willing to bet that twitter's business model is simply to be acquired. They'll leave it to the new owners to work out how to make money from the service. This would explain why there are no ads or other attempts at monetization. Why risk a user revolt at this stage?

2) The API. Twitter allows anybody to build on top of their platform. And now many users prefer to access twitter via third party services. But what if twitter starting applying a usage-based fee to access the API? They would simply shift the monetization onus on to third party developers. Hence, the likes of TweetDeck, would need to carry adverts or charge a subscription. And again, this strategy would benefit from letting usage of third party apps flourish.

So, In my view, there's no vagueness at all. Twitter is executing very rationally.

[thinkjose]

The other interesting issue is that there are quite a few 3rd party Twitter tools that are making money.

Imagine NBC letting anybody run 30sec spots in between their shows and not collecting a dime off of it. The next 6 months will be interesting for twitter and all the other mini-biz models built on top of it.

http://twitter.com/thinkjose

[WeCanDoBIZ]

Are there Twitter tools making money? Which? And isn't this annoying for Twitter itself? What does Twitter get from other companies that have managed to better exploit its platform for commercial gain?

When contemplating revenue models for Twitter I have often thought that charging third party developers to use the API could be one. So I read with interest the fact that later this week Twitter will start restricting use of the API: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10147535-2.html

Has this move revealed their strategy for revenue generation?

Ian Hendry
CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz

[wade_coleman]

People said the same things about Google, pre AdWords. I don't know how they're going to make money... but a massive base of fanatical users is as good a place to start as any.