Twitter

[Perform Computers]

Hi all,

I have this burning question....

How does Twitter generate revenue ? I don't see a single advert on their site. Signup is free.

So how do they make the big bucks?

[Mark Atkinson]

Hi Andrew,

Twitter has what they call "Promoted Tweets". These are paid-for tweets which are shown to relevant users in searches and such things.

I stand to be corrected, but I think that you can also pay to be pushed up the "suggested users" list.

I'm not sure of the exact nature of their monetizing scheme, but that's the just of it.

Also, reading here it's interesting to note that Twitter also has contracts with the search engines, selling tweets related to particular search terms. (Remember tweets are publicly available and searchable)

[Justloadit]

They also send out tweets advertising a specific product under endorsement of a famous public person. SO a singer could say - I am having coffee at Hard Rock Cafe, advertising the cafe to their followers.

There is no such thing as a free lunch - ever

[Dave A]

I know they had the devil's own job for quite a while trying to figure out a way to monetise it. Just like Facebook, Twitter was valued at a fortune before it earned its first cent.

Given that most tweets are sent and read via SMS, a traditional "ads with content" approach wasn't viable.
At one point they wanted to turn it into a subscription service - and the tweets came pouring in that the tweeting would stop if they tried.

Then they tried to sell, and that got tangled up in a legal battle on anti-trust issues - between Yahoo! and Google if I remember correctly.

As I recall, the search engine deal only really came about as a rescue when Twitter announced that they were seriously considering giving up and terminating the service. No-one knew how to monetise it, but they sure didn't want it to disappear.

A classic example of the wierd economics that make up the internet, for sure.