Comments on: Twitter CEO: The revenue's coming soon, but I won't tell you how

Evan Williams talks at the Churchill Club about Twitter's new revenue model and new features.

[simplelifer]

Well said, Mr. Needleman.

[WeCanDoBIZ]

An interesting article and I also feel more confident in Twitter's plans, in spite of the uncertainty in Evan's opening comments. It worries me that he doesn't feel he can lead the way to revenue ("We can't predict how the businesses we're in will work") but I am enthused that they are looking at many options beyond just advertising and charging users.

I do wonder whether some of the changes are as likely to disrupt current growth as they are to create new opportunity. If ads start appearing in one form or another, or members do start getting charged for premium features, could them prompt people to look for an alternative just at the start of the curve, like Twitter was 18 months ago?

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

[EdShaz]

Rafe thanks for the coverage.
But, rather than "lost", perhaps Williams is not answering
for good reason? Many care about the health of Twitter.
And therefore, will forgo a detailed revenue model projection.

Why expose his throat to hyenas when they don't even hide
the fact they're out there?
You're mistaking politely evasive for unsure.
Or upset you didn't scoop.

[JohnSheridan]

Twitter is a successful micro-blogging proof of concept that demonstrates the demand. It can't possibly evolve on it's current path, as even the CEO points out.

Aside from evolving to a platform with better API access, Twitter will be way ahead of the game in understanding the interactions of the community; how connections are formed and maintained, and what the content of that communication is. Data.

What Google is to the web, Twitter will be to the microblogisphere.

[GraemeThickins]

great coverage, Rafe - thanks... was hoping you'd be there to capture

biggest news out of this to me is the "Groups" thing... they're actually behind on this one, since certain team-collaboration apps for business use have already implemented this Twitter-like functionality...one example (a client): http://bit.ly/40BT

cheers,
Graeme
www.tech-surf-blog.com

[UITD]

Forget about criticism regarding lacking revenue... the entire CONCEPT sucks. Once people realize how stupid it is to notify everyone of precisely what you are doing at every given moment, its over. NO ONE needs to know what I am up to at any given moment in this world. Not my friends, not my family and certainly not my boss(!).

For those who get a tingle up the leg with this social networking crap, the very first time you get asked WHY you havent updated yourself or WHERE are you, etc, you will realize how INTRUSIVE you just allowed your life to become.

Get real folks. There are so few GREAT ideas, this is not one of them. This is simply another failure.

[JeanAnnVK]

Twitter will definitely be around...and if they become a bit quicker to respond to consumer feedback, they will stay at the top of the heap. Despite what he mentions about it being hard for noobs, it is the easiest platform requiring the least from the user. Twitter makes it easy to stay involved...and that's a strong business model.

[wendy18--2008]

I agree that the biggest news here is the "groups" feature. It's definitely needed (see this Squidoo lens for one lucid explanation of why: http://www.squidoo.com/twitteradhd) and I would love to know if there are third-party solutions out there.

[jeffbeer]

twitter will be around, but it has to stay true to itself... I'm tired of facebook's riduculous amount of crap that is known as apps. twitter has a simple idea, and while it may not be all that clever, I think it's something that'll catch on.

[MarkEssel]

Great read Mr. Needleman, concise and informative just what I like to see. Looking forward to which microblogging service brings the greatest utility (I'm betting on intelligent advertising with my blog).

[rickybadboy1]

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