Business models and acquisition thoughts on Twitter EveryJoe

Lots and lots of discussion about potential business models for Twitter today. I think either Jason Calacanis started it off with his Twitter as a billion dollar business post or Allen (see I spelled it right this time!) Stern with his Twitter F’ed post regardless of the order, both are thought provoking. Personally I like Jason’s ideas of ad-supported and pro-level accounts. It would be something that I might pay for. Twitter is key to my daily info load plus another connection mechanism (you can follow my Twitter updates). Mark Evans, my predecessor here, thinks that Facebook is the obvious and most likely candidate to buy up Twitter–something that would make me seriously consider jumping off the Twitter wagon for sure.

While it might be unlikely given the current situation, I think Yahoo! is a great match. Twitter needs better communities and Yahoo has that with MyBlogLog. Could the two be paired together to make something really cool? I’d love to have a way to follow a particular discussion or group of followers (like Canadians in tech-social media). Could that be done with MBL tech? Google could be a player here, if only to keep it out of the hands of others, though I think Google would be better off scooping up Skype and StumbleUpon from eBay.

But…

Twitter is hot at the moment, and it’s elegant in its simplicity-would something with Facebook or Yahoo! destroy that? I think the business model is a secondary concern over ensuring that Twitter can grow and expand without alienating the rest of us.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Twitter business model, Yahoo, Facebook, MyBlogLog

http://bentrem.sycks.net Ben Tremblay

I’m not carnivorous … that’s the wrong image. With tech_docs I say it’s “eye of an eagle” along with the manners of a pit-bull. But with business … the analogy that comes to mind is too personal to share in a blog. Let’s just say I watch and am patient.

I was very disappointed when blogspot went to google; I think Ev could have had some more inspired support. But that’s our times.

What came to mind just now, reading your post, was “How come companies like SixApart doesn’t show some real pizzaz?” Obvious enough to buy LJ. (I said from the start that Vox was right pretty … and I go there maybe 4 times a year.) And also obvious to sell it … but more painfully.

Who would do Twitter right? No, not “Whose gonna give the creators 7 figures in the bank?” but who has the gut-feel for it?

I have PowWow as part of my personal experience; I don’t just know how good community comms can be (I worked for TELCO and have had a ham licence for over 30 years … free resource is nothing new to me.) but what happened to that lovely platform informs me of how quickly things can turn black and die.

may ’08 be a year of “outrageously brilliant glory!”

cheers
ben
allen

i started it off :) jason followed me :) thanks for spelling my name right and welcome back!
http://www.marketingconversation.com Jonathan Trenn

Tris

First of all, congrats on this new gig. Very happy for you. And yes, I agree with your prediction that you may be syndicated some day.

Regarding Jason’s predictions on advertising on Twitter. I don’t know…I can’t see every 20th or every 200th tweet. As a potential media buyer, I’d think, what am I buying? Will this person see the ad if they’re online but on another site? How can I target? Can Twitter teach me out the person before I send them an ad? Frequency? I think Chris Brogan gets about a dozen tweets a minute. Others may get a dozen every three hours.

Now if the registration process was a bit more structured, and ads could be delivered on a more localized basis, it may be a bit different.

I’m betting by the time Twitter moves in this direction, they will have made some necessary changes to meet these challenges.

Google buying Skype? You think so? They’re certainly established. Right now I’m doing some work for http://www.oovoo.com. Great service and easier to use. You can have six people at once, all on video.

Frankly, I see Twitter creating a pay-for-play type service for some group setting that could include video. If you’re going to start charging people or change revenue model in some way, it’s best to add something extra. My two cents.