3 ms·

How does twitter make money, exactly? (I'm dead serious, I don't know)

josefresco 18y ago
They don't.
babul 18y ago
With a big enough user-base, they'll find a way. Occasional contextual adverts added to your timeline seems the obvious start.
- run4yourlives 18y ago
  they'll find a way That wouldn't exactly be comforting if it was my money on the table.
  - tom_rath 18y ago
    Bah! This is The New Economy. You just don't "Get It".
    - bendemott 18y ago
      I love it!
    - run4yourlives 18y ago
      Funny, I think I've heard that one before.
- acgourley 18y ago
  I'm very interested to see this play out. Pop wisdom says with enough eyes and with low enough operating costs there will be some way to make it as a company. But there has to be an inflection point somewhere. Look at youtube, they will never be in the black (taken on their own). So either they turn a profit, and this piece of wisdom is strongly reinforced. Or they go under, and entrepreneurs and VCs lose a certain glint in their eye. Or they get bought... and probably no one's mind is changed.
- kirse 18y ago
  big enough user base Just like Facebook, right!?
  - shawndrost 18y ago
    Facebook makes hundreds of millions annually. They could have been very profitable years ago (but chose instead to try for an even bigger hit). I don't know why people on this site keep talking about Facebook like it's a failed business.
    - run4yourlives 18y ago
      Because moneycomingin > moneygoingout or you die. It doesn't matter how big either of those numbers are, as long as the equations stand. Most argue that the equation in facebook's case fails.
- mattmaroon 18y ago
  Everyone says this, and meanwhile we're watching companies with huge user bases flounder around helplessly without finding a way. I think it's time we stop taking that for the gospel and admit that it's actually quite possible for a company to get a huge user base and still fail to make money permanently.
- thwarted 18y ago
  This explains why they turned off IM access. No need to view the web pages, and no ad views, via IM. And people will respond better to ads on web pages than ads via IM.
newmediaclay 18y ago
They've started to allow users to place ads as their background...they could be the first service that figured out how to allow their users to make money before the actual company can!
- nostrademons 18y ago
  No, that would be AllAdvantage.com. ;-)
  - mrtron 18y ago
    They only lost out to fraud. Any company dealing with users and money experience this - look at PayPal. AllAdvantage is a perfect example of why you can't allow client side services to be calculating things that really should be done server side. You could send a magical packet that would log all your hours for a month instantly. Sorry about the offtopic rant :)
nickb 18y ago
They have lots of options. Check this list for some ideas: http://calacanis.com/2008/01/02/the-three-business-models-that-make-twitter-a-billion-dollar-bus/ http://calacanis.com/2008/01/02/the-three-business-models-th...
- aneesh 18y ago
  Where "lots of options" means advertising in different forms. Sure they can make some money from subscriptions, but Twitter is not a $50/month or even $50/year service in my opinion.
  - josefresco 18y ago
    It is to some people, the 'Internet celebrity' (Calacanis etc.) crowd would gladly throw thousands/year at Twitter as it allows them to grow their image/social circle.
    - mattmaroon 18y ago
      Those people are far too few to become a reliable source of revenue for Twitter.
  - wyclif 18y ago
    In order for Twitter to start a subscription model, they'd need international SMS (something they seem to have given up on, as third parties now provide paid SMS bundling) AND IM. Today, I opened my T-Mo statement, and there was a Twitter ad inside. Still no IM and SMS, though. No matter how big their user base gets, that looks like a show stopper to me.
- run4yourlives 18y ago
  Those options don't strike me as particularly strong. The assumption is that people won't mind ads in their updates, but that's something that has yet to be proven and could end up being a huge risk.
  - 18y ago
bigbang 18y ago
Twitter Japan has ads, although I would guess JP userbase would be too small to matter
shafqat 18y ago
They can turn around tomorrow and say it'll cost 10 bucks a year to use it. Most people will pay to play, just because they've been sucked in. $10 x however many millions of users they have... you do that math!

They don't.

babul 18y ago

With a big enough user-base, they'll find a way. Occasional contextual adverts added to your timeline seems the obvious start.

run4yourlives 18y ago
they'll find a way That wouldn't exactly be comforting if it was my money on the table.
- tom_rath 18y ago
  Bah! This is The New Economy. You just don't "Get It".
  - bendemott 18y ago
    I love it!
  - run4yourlives 18y ago
    Funny, I think I've heard that one before.
acgourley 18y ago
I'm very interested to see this play out. Pop wisdom says with enough eyes and with low enough operating costs there will be some way to make it as a company. But there has to be an inflection point somewhere. Look at youtube, they will never be in the black (taken on their own). So either they turn a profit, and this piece of wisdom is strongly reinforced. Or they go under, and entrepreneurs and VCs lose a certain glint in their eye. Or they get bought... and probably no one's mind is changed.
kirse 18y ago
big enough user base Just like Facebook, right!?
- shawndrost 18y ago
  Facebook makes hundreds of millions annually. They could have been very profitable years ago (but chose instead to try for an even bigger hit). I don't know why people on this site keep talking about Facebook like it's a failed business.
  - run4yourlives 18y ago
    Because moneycomingin > moneygoingout or you die. It doesn't matter how big either of those numbers are, as long as the equations stand. Most argue that the equation in facebook's case fails.
mattmaroon 18y ago
Everyone says this, and meanwhile we're watching companies with huge user bases flounder around helplessly without finding a way. I think it's time we stop taking that for the gospel and admit that it's actually quite possible for a company to get a huge user base and still fail to make money permanently.
thwarted 18y ago
This explains why they turned off IM access. No need to view the web pages, and no ad views, via IM. And people will respond better to ads on web pages than ads via IM.

newmediaclay 18y ago

They've started to allow users to place ads as their background...they could be the first service that figured out how to allow their users to make money before the actual company can!

nostrademons 18y ago
No, that would be AllAdvantage.com. ;-)
- mrtron 18y ago
  They only lost out to fraud. Any company dealing with users and money experience this - look at PayPal. AllAdvantage is a perfect example of why you can't allow client side services to be calculating things that really should be done server side. You could send a magical packet that would log all your hours for a month instantly. Sorry about the offtopic rant :)

nickb 18y ago

They have lots of options. Check this list for some ideas: http://calacanis.com/2008/01/02/the-three-business-models-that-make-twitter-a-billion-dollar-bus/ http://calacanis.com/2008/01/02/the-three-business-models-th...

aneesh 18y ago
Where "lots of options" means advertising in different forms. Sure they can make some money from subscriptions, but Twitter is not a $50/month or even $50/year service in my opinion.
- josefresco 18y ago
  It is to some people, the 'Internet celebrity' (Calacanis etc.) crowd would gladly throw thousands/year at Twitter as it allows them to grow their image/social circle.
  - mattmaroon 18y ago
    Those people are far too few to become a reliable source of revenue for Twitter.
- wyclif 18y ago
  In order for Twitter to start a subscription model, they'd need international SMS (something they seem to have given up on, as third parties now provide paid SMS bundling) AND IM. Today, I opened my T-Mo statement, and there was a Twitter ad inside. Still no IM and SMS, though. No matter how big their user base gets, that looks like a show stopper to me.
run4yourlives 18y ago
Those options don't strike me as particularly strong. The assumption is that people won't mind ads in their updates, but that's something that has yet to be proven and could end up being a huge risk.
- 18y ago

bigbang 18y ago

Twitter Japan has ads, although I would guess JP userbase would be too small to matter

shafqat 18y ago

They can turn around tomorrow and say it'll cost 10 bucks a year to use it. Most people will pay to play, just because they've been sucked in. $10 x however many millions of users they have... you do that math!