socialmedian: Twitter May Have Found Its Business Model

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Twitter May Have Found Its Business Model By thomaspower

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Source: ReadWriteWeb

Jan 16, 2009

Summary

Twitter...what is it good for? It turns out this little service is good for a whole lot of things, despite the loud objections of people who've never really tried it. Even among true believers, though, it's been hard to figure out how this much loved company was going to afford to stay alive. How will Twitter make money?

A number of people noticed a new change made to Twitter today that could show just how it's going to happen.

Sponsor

Buying Friends

Professional hustler turned CEO Jason Calacanis spelled it out on Twitter tonight. The new Twitter "suggested friends" feature (first blogged by Pete Cashmore) is a natural place to sell friend connections between users and companies wanting to communicate with them.

Who says you can't buy friends? $1 per user who takes the suggestion and opts in to getting messages from @JetBlue or @Zappos? That could happen. Could those companies keep their freshly purchased friends? Only if their Twitter output stayed interesting!

In order for this to work, Twitter is going to have to make these recommendations a lot more pr

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Comments (14)

Rexhammock,

Jan 16, 2009

Selling friend connections is a business model? Come to think of it, selling connections (i.e. direct marketing lists) is a huge business. I don't see why it wouldn't work. It's better than selling lists, as the recipient is opting in and can opt out at any time. Bring it on.

Toluju,

Jan 16, 2009

This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Will tech blogs please stop obsessing over twitter?

Fredsmilek,

Jan 16, 2009

Woah...who have thought? twitter= massive$$$

Fred Smilek
Email- Fred_Smilek@yahoo.com
Webpage- http://sites.google.com/site/fredjsmilek/

Fred Smilek is the acting president of the Society to Save Endangered Species. It was founded two years ago by Fred Smilek along with his two best friends Charles and Jonathan.

Thomaspower,

Jan 17, 2009

@rexhammock this has been Ecademy's business model since 1998.

Thomaspower,

Jan 17, 2009

@thomaspower http://www.ecademy.com/membership.php

Mataal,

Jan 17, 2009

have any of you seen how broken the friend suggest is? twitter will find a hard time getting people to use it in its current state, let alone making money out of it!

Majorwho,

Jan 17, 2009

Actually, a third party, mrtweet.net already does a much better job of this...

Donaldtownsend,

Jan 17, 2009

Well, Twitter needs some way to monetize its operation but I'm not so sure this is the way to do it. They have to give it a try or come up with a better idea.

Rjcortez,

Jan 17, 2009

I think the idea is brilliant, as long as Twitter keeps the free service.

Rafaelmontilla,

Jan 18, 2009

I think they have to work out it more But I fing it very idea.

Nadavzin,

Jan 19, 2009

That is the most stupid twitter business model I have heard of in a long time...

Vereser,

Jan 19, 2009

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