and Share and

Twitter’s success has boiled to the point the even some Twitterers start to wonder how would the service monetize.

Here is the short list of a few ways I can think of for Twitter’s evolution:

1. Same as that of Facebook: display ads in left & right white spaces
2. Same as that of Google Adword: you tweet “I love cold drink”, an ad for Coca-cola is displayed
3. Same as that of faceViet: display ad between tweets
4. Same as that of vietnamworks: service providers pay Twitter to create a Twitter account specifically for brand-engagement / market research / recruitment / sales. This is politically difficult as the line between a service provider and a non-provider is vague
5. Same as that of many popular blogs providing premium subscription: celebrity Twitterer charge followers for valuable tweets, part of the charge goes to Twitter
6. Same as that of a social-C2C-commerce: Twitters become actual seller & procurers

What are your ideas?

4 Responses to “How will Twitter make money?”

1. preetam rai says:

   October 2, 2008 at 12:24 am

   Twitter japan is already showing ads on the right hand side of the page.
2. Nguyen H. Tuan says:

   June 3, 2009 at 7:22 am

   Not only Twitter, but Facebook also finds hard time monetizing as well.

   All they need to do is to hit into the corporations part. Since, both are social network, they can set up a social community within the big corps so that employees and employers can contact and do projects easier from any distance at anytime.

   Since, both are used for real-time communication, sharing, and updates; therefore, they are ideal for big corps.

   I have no idea to go into details, it take time; but I think it is possible for them to make money. Big corps compete each other second by second, that’s why they need a real-time online office.
3. Tai says:

   June 5, 2009 at 8:32 am

   @preetam: thanks, nice knowing that :)
4. Tai says:

   June 5, 2009 at 8:34 am

   @Tuan

   Thanks for your comment. I have some points to follow up

   1. Facebook has been profitable for 5 consecutive quarters :)

   http://www.taitran.com/blog/observations-from-facebooks-business.html

   2. Yammer has already made their way to corporate environment. Twitter is heading in a very different direction: offering tools

   http://twitter.com/taitran/status/1844070484

   Cheers