I have
always been a big user of Twitter, which is actually my favorite social media. Nevertheless,
and for quite a while, I have been wondering about their business model and
their ability to generate long term revenues.
One figure
comes up to my mind. Twitter has 100 million users. It is a pretty large base,
and it makes it one of the most used social media in the market. But when you
pay a close attention to this figure, Twitter is by far smaller than Facebook,
and on an international scale, it remains small. Will it be enough to become an
unquestionable media?
To me, the
question is not solved yet. I have learned recently that Twitter is still
raising funds in order to develop their advertising platform. It is for sure a
very important step they are taking. They now focus all their efforts on developing
this needed business model, and achieve profitability. But it has been several
months that they are working on it, and still, it is unclear if they have
really made any progress.
Twitter is
a new medium. And most of the new medium, like television or radio, have
started by providing great quality program before becoming profitable. Eventually
it works. Twitter has no questioned change the way we consume information. Twitter
it also changes the way we interact on the Internet. And it really brings added
value to the user.
Twitter
suits well for:
¨
Accessing
information fast on a mobile device thanks to its short text messages
¨
Being
informed to the most recent news.
¨
Interact
with others who share the same interests.
But once
again, Twitter really needs to find a way to monetize its service, otherwise
its system may have no future.
I think
they should have focused on this point right from the beginning, as it would
have been easier afterwards to adapt the platform to advertisements.
