• Cnet, Wednesday, December 3, 2008 11:15 AM

At an industry event in San Francisco, Twitter CEO Evan Williams once again brushed aside concerns about the microblogging site's lack of a business model. "We will make money, and I can't say exactly how because ... we can't predict how the businesses we're in will work," Williams said, hinting that the company would generate fees from sales-related Twitter content and from corporate users. However, as the conversation wore on, Cnet claims that one actually got the impression that Williams might be onto something.

The Twitter CEO revealed that the company was negotiating with consumer packaged goods companies about possibly licensing Twitter's microblogging service internally or helping them monetize their own Twitter feeds. "We're looking at Q1 for revenues," Williams proclaimed -- a departure from the company's more laconic pre-crisis stance on revenue. "The original plan was to focus on revenues in 2010. That's no longer the case, since I don't want to raise money in 2009," he added.

And the revenue plans aren't just for ads or sponsorships: "We want revenues to be product-based," Williams said. "Google built something that can really scale, and that's our intention as well." Williams also revealed several new projects in the pipeline for 2009, including grouping/sub-networking features and ways to make Twitter easier to use for newbies.

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