

Ask YC: I have a twitter account with 1800+ followers, what do you think it is worth? - ca98am79

I'm just curious what the account may be worth.  I've actually had the account less than a week and it has grown quickly.  I remember there was some guy who was trying to sell his twitter account on ebay and the bidding was up to $1500+ (for 1500 followers) before he canceled it.  I know it kind of depends on what the account name is, etc... But I'd prefer to remain anonymous right now and I am mostly interested in a generic $ value/follower figure.  Any best guesses?
Thanks!
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goofygrin
$0

I just don't understand the draw of twitter. I guess it's just the old "take
some old unix app and make it for the web" thing again. Hello wall 2.0.

ETA: the simple fact that you can get 1800 "followers" in a week devalues the
"service" even more to me.

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ca98am79
just because you don't understand it does not mean it has zero value.

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goofygrin
but the fact that someone can go from 0 to 1800 "friends" in a week (assuming
they are a noone like me) _has_ to imply the lack of value of an account with
that many friends (and IMNSHO the "service" itself).

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ca98am79
"followers" - not "friends." And not necessarily - think about supply and
demand. There are a limited number of twitter accounts. If you happen to have
a good twitter account name, it may attract many followers and be of value.
Plus, it isn't easy to get that many followers. You can't just sign up and
make it happen. I think the number of followers would be of value from at
least an advertising perspective.

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olefoo
The twitter account is worth nothing, your reputation is what you are
attempting to sell.

And as with the offer of a virginity on the open market, the very act of
offering it as a commodity devalues it.

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ca98am79
Assuming that a twitter account is equal to a reputation seems kind of absurd
to me. As stated in the subject, it is a twitter account (and not a
reputation) that I am interested in finding the value of. Everything has some
sort of value - even an empty can in the street. I am just curious if anyone
has any idea how to value a twitter account (based on the number of
followers).

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olefoo
The twitter account is just a conduit; assuming that people are following it
because of who is generating it; selling it is an attempt to monetise the
repuation.

Now if you did something clever that is automatically pumping stuff
interesting enough to follow into Twitter and you're selling that. That's a
horse of a different color.

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bridgetroll
Is there anything in the Twitter terms which preclude selling an account?

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rms
How much do you think a news.yc account with 5000 karma is worth?

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mattmaroon
You might want to go the advertising route. Sell one tweet per day or
something like that.

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thomasswift
I'd have to agree. I think you might be using the service for the wrong
reason.

BTW, i think the auction type stuff happened really earlier when it was hard
to get on twitter. the barrier is quite low now.

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ca98am79
It was actually less than a month ago, and it was the rocketboom founder:
<http://mashable.com/2008/04/13/twitter-ebay-sale/>

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thomasswift
that's a long time in the startup world :)

my bad

