No. Google (and MS) can afford it, and the deal is worth it for the PR plus the head start on figuring out how to make money from the firehose. We have a few ex

No. Google (and MS) can afford it, and the deal is worth it for the PR plus the head start on figuring out how to make money from the firehose. We have a few examples of people making money from Twitter -- the question now is how to follow that up so the platform itself can make money, and how its preferred partners can make money. This head start is worth the money, even if Twitter decides to open its firehose for free to all later. If it doesn't work out, then the deal ends. I have no idea what the terms of the deal are, but suppose as a wild guess the deal costs Google $100 million over two or three years, then ends. That's not great, but Google can afford that for the chance of making lots more money. At the size Google is now, they need to find revenue opportunities and new markets measured in the billions to move their stock price, at which point $100 million sounds less of a big deal...yes, it's weird...