The Curious Case Of Twitter Vs Everyone: Twitter Not For Sale, Says CEO
It looks as if everyone has their eyes on the microblogging service Twitter, which is currently enjoying a staggering growth rate of 1,382 percent! After stories of Twitter being pursued by the mighty giants of Web like Microsoft, Google and Facebook; the blogosphere was buzzing yesterday with a supposed buyout of Twitter by Apple Inc. The deal was stated to be in the range of $700 million range. But Co-founder Biz Stone told popular US chat show The View that there was no truth in the rumors.
“We’re just getting started as I’ve said. The company is two years old, we have so much to do, so much product stuff to fix, and so much growing to do,” said Mr. Stone. “We are not for sale. Twitter is focused on developing new features on its website and on remaining independent.”
So why is everyone running after Twitter? And why has Twitter has shunned away from all acquisition deals even though they don’t have a clear business model yet? Let’s have a look at what having Twitter in their kitty could mean for the web super powers.
Google + Twitter: Hmm, Maybe!
- Twitter’s business model doesn’t even allow text ads, and sooner or later they have to think of a profitable model.
- Google adwords and real time search on Twitter can open up revenue streams in the business model.
- A partnership on search advertising marketing will be useful for Twitter.
Facebook + Twitter: Too idealistic?
- Facebook offered to acquire Twitter for $500 million of its stock.
- A combination of fastest-growing social-networking site with the best-known microblogging service is a natural fit.
- Deal broke down because of doubts on behalf of Twitter investors about the stock’s actual worth.
Microsoft + Twitter: Getting back at Google?
- Twitter is the new face of search, and Microsoft is trying to get hold of the lost search engine market to Google.
- The feature search.twitter.com has seen a rise of 514% from Jan. to April and can act as the main weapon against Google’s foothold on search.
Apple: Uh huh, no way!
- The whole thing is ridiculous and distorted from top to bottom.
- Apple is a hardware company which markets softwares to only go along with the hardware! Like iTunes with the iPod.
What’s cooking @Twitter office?
- Carrying on the huge momentum of its growth, Twitter investors want it to formalize a business model of its own.
- Twitter has been edging towards making search its source of income. The real time search is soon going to be augmented with indexing of links and their contents.
- Twitter’s real time search has proven itself in not just tracking conversations, but also much faster news than Google.
- The valid observation is that Twitter is not looking for a buyout but rather good distribution deals.
Where Twitter might be headed in the recent future is not sure, but the dedication of the 30+ team sitting at a small office in San Francisco is surely going to change the way internet talks and tracks information.
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@ RT Apple: Uh huh, no way:
We thought Apple was able to secure enough mind control with its design prowess that it didn’t have to pay for it!
check above article which says that apple is one of the major advertising client of be a magpie – twitter advertising company….that explains the case that apple indeed see the value in twitter as it would provide it opportunity to advertise in a big way and also an entry in web arena cos it can’t ignore web market for long when its billion iphone apps are accessing the net which itself gives it a market…..
Twittter is definitely in a phase which facebook was few years ago ……let the hype die down which definitely will until a new ground breaking product arrives providing a platforn to bloggers to blurb about…… The promoters of twitter has a historic record of selling their successful apps too…
Should be interesting to follow over the coming weeks. Even facebook is still struggling to identify their business model – Youtube also.
As a marketer, twitter presents an interesting challenge. How is it best used. Many companies have built a twitter profile on RSS – hardly allowing for the personal interaction twitter is based on.
At CareerBuilder.co.in we are exploring the tool more each day. In fact, we’ve decided to offer Summer Twinterships (Twitter Internships) so that we can learn more in the coming months. http://bit.ly/O1KWI
Twitter is addictive, in positive way. 30+ team has done an extremely great job. Following for some more interesting post like this, Aditya..
Paras J
@ Raghav
Well, I still believe that Apple is the one to least benefit from the acquisition. Heck, if I am some random oil baron in Saudi Arabia with $150 million, and even if I am a tech retard I will still want to invest in twitter.
Because its the the thing of the future
but yah you made some really interesting points from the apple side. Makes me rethink the Apple angle
@paras joshi
Thanks! WATblog will keep analysing any future developments
@CareerBuilderIN
I think that companies building personal profiles on twitter is a much more personal way of interacting with customers than push advertisements. Summer Twinterships sound cool!
Unfortunately the page is blocked at my university!
The problem with why companies such as facebook, twitter are struggling with revenue model is pretty simple:
They got TOO BIG TOO FAST. And, as a rule of business, revenue model evolves based on your observations of what customer wants and do you have the right platform to sell?
In this competitive world, one might not want to take risk by coming out with what they like as good business model, as their users are just one click away to their competitors.
“TOO BIG TOO FAST” has got all these big players figuring out how they generate money which happens as a result of evolution of business!
@krish
A nice point. But we must keep in mind that there have been BIG players who have been able to get good revenue streams out of their mdoels.
Flickr, Linkedin, Loads of Google Products …
No one will go for such rumors as websites like twitter,facebook are so popular & has got such great future prospects. It is quite understood that twitter cant be for sale.
they think that they are next google. And should be work billions not millions.
Hail web 2.0