c
ir
- Image via CrunchBase
I don’t know if you saw the news report or if you even knew about it. Twitter turned down a supposed offer of $500 million from Yahoo. It seems that they thought that the price was just not right.
There are two rules of thought about that. Either Twitter thinks that they are worth way more than what was offered or they have a better offer on the table. Obviously it must be being kept very secret as there has not been a whiff of news about it.
I really do not understand their thought process. There are a large number of people that use Twitter. Of that I am sure. But how exactly are the owners profiting from all this? Twitter is free to join and there are no fees involved with using their service.
I saw a interview with Evan Williams, one of the co-founders and chief executive of Twitter on Charlie Rose. This guy was also one of the co-founders of Blogger, which he sold to Google, so I am sure he has a boatload of money set aside. But how long can they go without making any money? He would not confirm what the offer was from Yahoo but it was a lot.
There are all kinds of ebooks, courses and other types of media where everyone is trying to show you how you can make money using Twitter. So, how can these guys not be sitting around trying to figure out how they can make money with Twitter?
I kind of think that Yahoo saw the potential and wanted to get in and make some money with this media before someone else figured out how they could best use Twitter. This was just the first round of bargaining. And hey Twitter we don’t think you were acting in out best interest, trying to police Twitter and keep it clean from gross advertising.
And I just read an article that said that John Mayer was starting to do an ad for Campbell Soup on his Twitter site. Now I am not a follower of Jon but if someone I was following blatantly started doing ads for products straight out on their site, the unfollow button would definitely be used. You can read about it here.
Knew it was only a matter of time before all of the big companies would try to get into Twitter. I think this is the opening shot, they all wanted to do it but no one wanted to be first. Now that it has happened it is just a matter of time before it spreads. We will have to see how the Twitter public feels about it.
If everyone kind of has a so what attitude we will be bombbarded with tons of entertainment types jumping on the bandwagon advertising everything under the sun.
But if Twitterland rises up and starts fighting back unfollowing the group that sell out, and it would be a sell out, our voices will be heard. Do you hear that Guru’s. Take heed and a warning. We know yo advertise to us but you are subtle. Maybe you need to go to these advertising agencies and show them how to approach the Twitter herd. It can be done just not straight in our face.
So, the first shot has been fired. Who next will give it a try and will Campbell Soup be successful in their campaign? Only time will tell, but maybe we better start looking for the next big Twitter out there. It probably has started, we just aren’t in to it yet. Hear that Ning?
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=c2a8f48b-ebf1-48c0-929b-03a8d1f3a087)
March 9th, 2009 at 7:41 am
Twitters monetization or rather lack of it has always concerned me as without it there is no service.
Will it have ads of some type at some point – most likely and may even have an upgrade to remove them. Hard to say but some form of monetization is necessary.
Mike Paetzold´s last blog post..Free PLR Giveaway 6 ending tomorrow
March 9th, 2009 at 8:30 am
Thanks for pointing this out Andre. I hadn’t actually heard anything about it yet.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens with this and what the repercussions will be.
You never know what might happen when a large corporation gets their hands on something like this.
BTW: I have seen several people, including the big Guru’s (or so it appears anyway) using Twitter for spam already. Not sure what the best way to stop it would be.
Brett McEllhiney
Brett McEllhiney´s last blog post..Build a Niche Marketing Business – Step 17: Rinse And Repeat
March 9th, 2009 at 10:48 am
Andre,
Twitter is exploding and with it the functionality, the potential and therefore also the interest from buyers.
Nobody projected this and I expect that is the same for what will happen next.
Fred
Fred Lotgering´s last blog post..Are You Quick Enough To Grab These?
March 9th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Hi Andre,
Great post! I hadn’t heard about this, thanks for keeping us informed.
Well, it was bound to happen. Always does when a site gets to popular.
I’m with you on the advertising, though. Once they start, next thing you know we will have to wade through tons of it.
Keep us posted on the happenings on this.
Great Job!
Shelby
Shelby Carr´s last blog post..Who Says You Can’t Make Money Online?
March 9th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Hi, Andre!
Good post, but you miss one of the main tenants of Twitter – it is a different experience to each user, based on who they choose to follow. An ivory tower holdout can choose only to follow non-commercial tweeters, while an online marketer will follow mostly commercial users. Most tweeple will fall somewhere in between.
Corporately, Twitter is a valuable tool for product updates and customer service – if you’re not interested in that company and don’t use their products, simply avoid following them.
As to the monetization of Twitter, they are rock-steady financially. They recently reported another cash injection of $36 million, which they simply added to the funds from their last injection, still sitting in the bank. Their only real cost is the 29 employees and their hardware & connectivity, so there’s no big overhead to maintain.
According to their latest press release, they are studying various models for monetizing the site. Only those who expect the world to be handed to them for free expect powerful services with no advertising or other commercial exposure; the rest realize SOMEONE has to foot the bill, and most prefer it be advertisers rather than digging into their own pockets.
And really, if the Twitter interface started to include AdSense-style ads off to the right, or just under the header on the site or in Twirl, TweetDeck, etc, it should have no more impact than people deciding not to use Google or Yahoo because paid listings appear above & beside your search results. It didn’t impact their user base at all, and shouldn’t at Twitter either.
If you advocate for non-commercial use of social sites, how much of their monthly overhead would you be willing to fund to keep it that way? Or would you be willing to fund and operate your own non-commercial websites?
Doug Champigny´s last blog post..Affiliate Marketing – Skills Are Required
March 9th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
I for one don’t care if Campbells advertises or not. There is so much twitter traffic these days its impossible to monitor it all. Thus people are using tools to select those who they really follow, not just those the list as following.
I suspect the twitter fad will slack off after a while. But I’m not in a position to judge as to whether or not it is still building but I suspect it is. Once it matures, it may collapse almost as fast.
Earl Netwal´s last blog post..Marketing to your Target Market
March 9th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
I have a feeling that the owners of Twitter are not dumb. Yes, they may not be making money from it just yet, but how I see it is that they are waiting for it to really take off like Facebook has.
There are many ways that they could monetize it, but they might just be waiting for it to explode before trying to sell. (to sell it for the most profit)
Joel Osborne´s last blog post..Affiliatenaire – How to Promote Any Affiliate Program In 5 Easy Steps