Contentinople - Erin Barker - News Bits: Two Ways Twitter Could Make Money

Written by Erin Barker

Friday, January 16. 2009 at 11:15 AM EST 1 comment

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Two theories have emerged in Twitter's ongoing quest for revenue today.

One is that Twitter could start charging application companies like TweetDeck -- which recently raised around $500,000 and has been downloaded 250,000 times -- for access to its data. The problem with this is that many of these applications startups still don't have their own revenue plans worked out (though TweetDeck's founder says he plans to make money by selling a pro version of his software).

Perhaps a more likely way Twitter could begin bringing in revenues: selling followers to companies like JetBlue and Zappos, as Jason Calcanis suggests in a recent (what else?) tweet.

Twitter quietly launched a tool called "Suggestions" this week that recommends other users to follow (or, add as a friend) on the site. If companies were included within users' Suggestions list and they compensated Twitter a certain amount ($1, Calcanis suggests) for every user that opted in to following them, Twitter could have a viable way to make money.

Other recent dramatic developments:

Hopes that Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) would finally get together for that search deal were dampened slightly when Carol Bartz reportedly said at a companywide meeting that she was going to spend a lot of time looking into the whole thing, but her "gut" told her not to do it. But perhaps this is just a signal to Microsoft that she's not in a hurry to rush into anything? Especially since Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer were allegedly spotted together yesterday in New York.

More pancreas, more politics: Steve Jobs may be having surgery to have his pancreas removed, according to some reports. Though The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times both reported that the pancreatic cancer he dealt with in 2004 has not returned, Bloomberg reported that removal may be necessary because of side effects from a "Whipple operation," he had in '04. Of course, the doctors Bloomberg spoke with haven't treated Jobs directly, so all this is inconclusive.

Tags: Apple, Business, Funding, Microsoft, Social Networks, Technology, Yahoo

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Twitter, facebook, myspace, yahoo, microsoft...Yawn zzz
bainzy
Rank: Pasha
Saturday January 17, 2009 12:50:59 PM

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What really pisses me off is that everybody is getting their knickers in a twist because the above cant make money, yes they may well and truly provide a useful service but if the creators didnt think about how they were going to live of it then they really do deserve to starve to death.

It wont be long before a more savvy hungry company comes along and provides a similiar or better service with built in income streams,. So why worry??

Whats all the fuss about, let twitter twitter away, facebook lose face, myspace become a no space, toodaloo to yahoo and microsoft become a microism and then let the internet really get going, we havent even peeked into the vastness of this space yet....LETS ALL EVOLVE NOT DISSOLVE- Bainzy

Ps Bainzy is coming caChing ;)

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