19 comments on "Twitter Finally Has a Business Model ... Not! "

1. Lois Wingerson from CMP Medica
   

   commented on: February 12, 2009 at 9:54 PM
   Alex is correct. All of the businesses that are trying to market on Twitter want ways to target, and Twitter will provide it. This may be Web 2.0 but that's Web 101.

2. ADRIENNE OBRIEN from NYIT
   

   commented on: February 12, 2009 at 11:25 AM
   Check out David Pogue's take on Twitter in today's Times.

3. Michael Smith from State Bar of Michigan
   

   commented on: February 12, 2009 at 10:24 AM
   Twitter or Fritter? Who needs to know when someone sneezes three states away? When a twitterer twitters where is their attention? Sounds like silicon attention deficit disorder.

4. William Houghton from MediaStrands, Inc.
   

   commented on: February 12, 2009 at 9:20 AM
   Seems pretty clear to me. "Twitter will be Free" doesn't mean there won't be value-add services that are for-pay. (I can go to a concert in the park for free -- but I'm still charged to buy a program or a drink. I don't complain.)

   My guess is Twitter has/is identified certain advertising/marketing services that it considers value-add, and not core to the user experience. These can be charged, and I doubt anyone would be surprised.

5. Jonathan Hall from American Pop
   

   commented on: February 11, 2009 at 6:59 PM
   Great article and great comments. Twitter has incredible momentum and will figure out a way to monetize that doesn't ruin the user experience, much like Google did. We find that Twitter is the ingredient in our Social Media campaigns that ties the other engagement channels (Blogs, Facebook, Message Boards, etc.) together. It couldn't be more opt in, so you have to make sure what you're offering is of value and interesting. I think everyone should sit back and enjoy the ride of seeing what happens next with Twitter. In the meantime, our clients are enjoying what they're seeing.

6. Robin Caller from GOALLOVER
   

   commented on: February 11, 2009 at 6:18 PM
   I dont care if they have a business model or not, and neither should any of you. Get over "watching" - get over "voyeurism" for a moment - get out of your jacked in screens for a little moment and ask yourself a fundamental question - is this service making my life more real? NO! It's a rubbish, nonsense, tiddle-taddle stupid way to "be more important" than we really are. The goal of online media agencies and brands is not to jump on the bandwagon of everything that "joe stupid" does for a new york minute. It is to filter, and ask whether this dumbass service is any more valid than the 4 blade shaver? Robin@goallover.com

7. Brad Stewart from Paymail Inc.
   

   commented on: February 11, 2009 at 4:44 PM
   I think search.twitter.com has some serious potential. At the very least for extremely current event promotion. For instance, imagine if I could get "Club 404 51st free martini for 1st 1000 tonight" as the #1 listing for searches under "New York Nightlife" for a period of 8 hours? On a cost per search basis, this would be worth something, me thinks.

8. Jeanne-Elise Heydecker from Icronex Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
   

   commented on: February 11, 2009 at 4:30 PM
   Oh, one more thing - If Twitter enabled payment through their system, because of the huge popularity of mutli-device Twitter users, they could corner the market on mobile payment processing and license their tech to everyone else.

   Just a thought...

9. Leyla Arsan from Lotus Marketing
   

   commented on: February 11, 2009 at 4:29 PM
   As someone who uses Twitter frequently but cannot seem to really "get" twitter, I encourage you to follow me @luluinatutu

10. Jeanne-Elise Heydecker from Icronex Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
    

    commented on: February 11, 2009 at 4:27 PM
    If they decide to charge companies for "additional" services, everyone knows that it's your private data. If I follow Chevy for example, Chevy would love to know my email, and whatever else they can glean from the experience. They might pay up to $50/email for that highly targeted a list... actually, the higher the pricepoint, the higher the price per email... Could be quite lucrative. The idea of "consumer insights" is all too vague and fuzzy for me as an in-house marketer, but that email - that's concrete and well worth parting with my marketing budget dollars. Privacy be damned! :-)

11. Derek Rey from Technorati Inc
    

    commented on: February 11, 2009 at 4:22 PM
    Twitter is real-time. Google is not real-time. Need I say more????

    End game = acquisition.

    That's the business model!

    P.s. shame on the "carrot & stick" mindset of subscription fees. lol. That's SO 1997:-)

12. James Gunaca from Agent SILVERFOX
    

    commented on: February 11, 2009 at 2:57 PM
    I think they will just roll out additional services that they'll charge people for. Perhaps insight into how many people are reading your tweets (so companies can measure effectiveness and reach of tweet campaigns, for example).

    They'll have a business model and it will make money. Twitter is definitely not a YouTube.

13. Ulrike Langer from Medial & Digital
    

    commented on: February 11, 2009 at 2:33 PM
    I agree with Alex. It's not that difficult to understand - and I'm not even a native speaker. Biz Stone's original comment was surely misleading, but he cleared it up. Only additional services which don't yet exist will be charged - eventually. And these services could be a hundred different things - more than 140 characters, more than one link option on the profile page, targeting tools for advertisers, tips from Twitter who to follow (which can bought), every 10th tweet a user sees is an ad etc., etc.

14. Cam Balzer from VivaKi
    

    commented on: February 11, 2009 at 2:23 PM
    In case you haven't seen it, Silicon Alley Insider held a contest for a Twitter business model. My very clever colleagues at Denuo won with an idea for a consumer insights tool that simultaneously doesn't mess with anyone's experience of Twitter and does provide brands with invaluable insights from their brand "participants": http://www.businessinsider.com/2009/2/ad-agency-wins-twitter-business-model-contest

15. Paul Chaney from Bizzuka Inc.
    

    commented on: February 11, 2009 at 2:22 PM
    I'm still holding out for my business model idea presented at OMMA Social. :-) Although, in truth, I think the VRM model presented by Uwe as the most viable. What company wouldn't want to offer deals to millions of Twitter users. Priceline meets micro-blogging.

16. Gerard McLean from Rivershark, Inc.
    

    commented on: February 11, 2009 at 2:22 PM
    God help us. Just establish two levels of service. Free for the masses, limit to 100 tweets a day and $10/month for the rest of us, unlimited use. Not hard.

    Now get on with it. And let me know where to sign up for the paid stuff.

17. Monica Bower from PaydayPERX
    

    commented on: February 11, 2009 at 2:15 PM
    It's simple. You send them your old gold jewelry and they send you a free credit report. Where is the confusion?

18. Mike Spring from Voice Coaches
    

    commented on: February 11, 2009 at 2:07 PM
    Do our responses have to be 140 characters or less?

19. alex Czajkowski from eGaming 2.0 Ltd
    

    commented on: February 11, 2009 at 1:53 PM
    Geez, which part don't you understand? Twitter has tapped into the online sms/add/narcissist "need" in (some) people and say they'll continue to allow use as we know it free. Cool. SO how do they monetize it? Let me count the ways... as someone who represents "corporate" clients on twitter, we'd love tools that help us more easily find our clients' customers, prospects, fans, suporters, etc. They CAN do that, the CAN charge for it, and we WILL (gladly if it works) pay. So no conflict.. and you DON understand: "because Twitter will charge for services that don't yet exist." Works for me--they've only scratched the surface so far.

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