Twitter the micro blogging platform founded in 2006 and recently became popular in mid-late 2007 is now faced with a very big problem – how can they monetize their site? Clearly, they can’t run on venture capital forever, but what can they do? Should they do what Pownce does and put ads in users Twitter feeds or have pro accounts? Would users let that happen after being spoiled for so long? Would they leave and go elsewhere?
They recently had to cut text messages in the UK due the price. Obviously they realize money is an issue, but what are they to do? It seems like a very difficult position to be in. In addition, they recently limited the number of people you can follow (now you can only follow 2000 people) – no doubt for scalability reasons. This also caused a ruckus, however, traffic is still going up and people are still tweeting.
Typically when a company has so many problems people jump ship, not so with Twitter it seems. Instead people are still using the service, but why? Does it provide an invaluable resource to some people by allowing them to reach large audiences with a few key strokes (140 to be exact) and a mouse click? Perhaps that’s it.
Should Twitter implement ads into user feeds or should it charge business users/people who have mass followings? I’d have to say the first is a better option, you start charging people who bring you the most traffic, they will just take their following elsewhere. Or maybe there is a better option out there?
What’s Twitter to do? Leave a comment.
