
What If Everyone Makes Money Except Twitter? - buckpost
http://www.markevanstech.com/2009/09/09/what-if-everyone-makes-money-except-twitter/
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jessep
The article misses the point of the original techcrunch article.

Techcrunch never questioned how much/if twitter could/would make money.
Rather, the original article made a genuinely interesting point that choosing
to turn on revenue generation mechanisms (which is obviously possible for
twitter) poses a risk for twitter if they're seeking an acquisition. That risk
comes from the fact that real revenue gives acquirers something concrete to
base their purchase price on, rather than a speculative guess at revenue
potential.

I don't know if this is actually influencing twitter's thinking, but I
certainly found the idea interesting.

This article I simply found annoying, because the tone is almost haughty while
the content demonstrates the author didn't understand (or maybe care about?)
the point of the article he referenced.

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arfrank
I think the poster answers his own question of how twitter will make money.

He says "In other words, what happens if hundreds of businesses are created
using Twitter’s API but the entity supporting them – Twitter – can’t make
revenue or, at least, enough revenue to be viable."

Why not monetize the API, and do it to the extent that heavy users pay a
heavier burden. Give away some free access every month, but once an app hits
some critical mass and hopefully becomes profitable, then start sharing in the
money. Twitter is at the point that if it were to do this, there would be some
backlash, but it certainly wouldn't be an end for them. It would just drive
all the "Feeder" companies to figure out how to make money quicker.

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ankeshk
Exactly!

In olden times, this is how new villages popped up. Someone would dig a well
and find water. But if he tried to sell this water, a village wouldn't grow
over there.

But if he gave away the water for free, a lot of people would show up. And he
could then sell the land surrounding the well to these folks and make the
money.

So the best way to make money off twitter is by charging for API access.

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neovive
This sounds very similar to Sun and Java. Many companies profited greatly from
Java -- except Sun. Where is Sun today?

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dpcan
Acquire the revenue makers.

Maybe Twitter is just waiting to see which API user makes the most money, and
they'll just BUY them.

