Advertising not a "good model" for Twitter - Warc News

News: April 17, 2009

Advertising not a "good model" for Twitter

SAN FRANCISCO: Twitter, the microblogging website, is focusing on creating value for consumers and companies before attempting to increase its revenues, but doesn't think traditional advertising will be a "good model", says co-founder Biz Stone.

While the rise of Twitter was one of the defining features of the digital landscape last year, many brands have found it difficult to identify how best to develop a strong presence on social media portals.

Stone argues that while Twitter has seen "lots of great signs of potential business models," it will first aim to build a "strong, robust, worldwide network" that becomes "part of everyday life for people, organizations and companies."

As the website reaches a "critical mass" and grows to be "integral" to businesses ranging from large corporations to "the coffee shop down the street," Twitter's co-founder suggests it will then find "many opportunities for generating revenue."

However, while its Japanese portal has experimented with using ads, this was only because it was part-run by a marketing company, meaning it "seemed natural for them to experiment with that."

Indeed, Stone argued both that there is "not much meaningful revenue being generated in that regard," and that he does not expect "traditional" advertising to play a key role in Twitter's plans.

Despite this, he added that of the 150 accounts he "followed" on the site, around half were from "companies or organizations or news outlets."

He also said there is a "kind of alchemy that takes place when you decide that you are going to move some of your communication to a public arena."

Doing so not only allows users to "make connections", but also means "things happen that wouldn't otherwise have happened."

comScore reports that 9.3 million people worldwide used Twitter in March, up from 4.3 million in February, growth it partly attributes to the large amount of media coverage Twitter has received.

Data sourced from San Jose Mercury/Washington Post; additional content by WARC staff, 17 April 2009

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