Twitter's First 2009 Revenue to Come from Large U.S. Corporations
According to a recent Bloomberg report, Twitter plans to target a handful of large corporations currently using the service to generate its first revenue this year.
While he would not release exact sales figures, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone was quoted in the post as saying, "The idea is if they are getting value out of Twitter, then we could add more value to what they are doing and we could get some revenue... We think we'll get to something this year, however simple, that shows we're making some money."
Services to be offered to the companies may include account verification, statistics and analytics, and multiple account management. However, almost any imaginable feature Twitter could offer is already being pushed by third-party services. Account verification, which has already been implemented for a handful of celebrities' accounts, is the only feature that only Twitter can provide, at least for the time being.
While many organizations and individuals claim to have made modest to massive amounts through their Twitter marketing (e.g., Dell cites a sum of $3 million made through its Twitter efforts alone), the microblogging service itself has yet to announce a concrete monetization strategy, much to the consternation of the larger tech community.
Twitter was recently cited by comScore as being the fastest-growing web property. With 18 million users, it is also the third-largest social site.
The company has received funds of around $55 million dollars from a bevy of private investors and VC firms so far, according to various announcements they and their investors have made since the startup launched in 2006.
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Account verification itself won't be enough. Actually, corporations already can "verify" their Twitter accounts by linking it from their official web sites.
Feels like the only web analytics platform that can handle the real-time nature of Twitter is VisiStat.
Will I'm with you on the ability to extend with third party applications, I can see Twitter charging select users in the same way that CraigsList does for real estate listings in New York City. Perhaps Ev and Co. will simply be selling naming rights, extending the idea of domain name registration to Twitter, or perhaps they'll be offering an all encompassing software suite which has the luxury of being internal. Or perhaps such clients will be buying into the "recommended follow" list - perhaps featured into cohorts tailored to the interests of new users.
Any of the above make more sense than the tried and tired question that others seem to constantly be asking, "When is Twitter going to start advertising?"
That was totally supposed to start with "While"...
This will work really well because the Twitter guys have so much experience marketing to large enterprises. Sorry guys, but you've already missed the FY10 budgeting cycle.
Twitter is like the Little Train that Could!
They backed themselves into a fantastic social wave without ever thinking of how it would ever me monetized, and truthfully, now its too late.
Too many third party apps out there actually control twitter already!
Hate to say it... but they missed the boat, unless they block 3rd parties from integrating.
M
Let's just hope that it works...
Twitter will definitely make its way.
Does anyone know how much they charge for?
I am rooting for Twitter but is this the most imaginative thing they can come up with to start?
As the saying generally goes, it goes downhill from here!