

Twitter and Yammer Test Dot-com Business Models - razorburn
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/21/technology/start-ups/21twitter.html

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bootload
_"... Successes like YouTube ... convinced some venture investors that
building a Web site with a large number of users could still be more valuable
than making money from paying customers ..."_

Does this still hold in the current post sub-prime credit squeeze?

 _"... Yammer, a new and much smaller copycat aimed at corporate customers,
has a mere 60,000 users ... Just six weeks after its public debut, Yammer is
already bringing in a modest amount of cash ..."_

Note that Yammer really didn't have to invent the idea. Just sit, notice
Twitter was on to something then build something derivative with a specific
niche in mind - a Twitter hybrid. Steve Bowbrick mentions the BBC uses Yammer
~ [http://commonplatform.co.uk/index.php/2008/10/15/huggers-
yam...](http://commonplatform.co.uk/index.php/2008/10/15/huggers-yammers/) So
Yammer is going for a profitable niche.

What is Twitters niche?

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petercooper
Yammer has 60,000 users within 6 weeks? I find that number unbelievable,
especially for a paying product that's _generally_ arcane (it's not arcane
compared to similar services, but it's hardly at Facebook's or Flickr's
level). Good luck to them if this is a valid indicator of their success.

[Update: Further down it says, "though only 200 companies with 4,000 users are
paying so far." That seems more realistic in terms of paying customers :)]

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mjnaus
Guess there is only left to say that when and if Yammer's model works, Twitter
only needs to copy it and call it a day.

By the way, I am thinking about implementing a similar model for my soon-to-
launch Twitter for the homeless (incl free iPhones).

