Comments on: Twitter’s Business Model: Pay to follow

By: Coachcms

Coachcms — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 13:13:50 +0000

Interesting article! I think there may be a niche for pay-to-view..Twitter really tells a story – albeit a convoluted one. I think people would pay to be part of the going-ons of celebs.

You could also create a sitcom or suspense type story line via Twitter. In the days past we would follow a comic strip – this was daily. Today times of changed but people’s appreciation for humor has not. What has changed? The speed of information – people now want a more rapid update – once per day does not cut it. So we have continual Twitter updates.

Just a thought.

By: Twitter - Business Model | Coach

Twitter - Business Model | Coach — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 13:02:07 +0000

[...] http://www.bitcurrent.com/twitters-business-model-pay-to-follow/#more-591 [...]

By: Alistair Croll

Alistair Croll — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:29:52 +0000

Avinash — I’d agree if one thought of it as premium content. I’m thinking of it more as an “iPhone app store for streams of expertise.” In other words, experts actively direct someone to their paid feed the way they would direct them to a research paper or some other document.

IMHO this is the future of analysts. Folks like Redmonk have built a business on (loosely) this model. It allows transient expertise, too. Britney’s Twitter Fan Club.

By: Avinash Kaushik

Avinash Kaushik — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:40:05 +0000

Very interesting idea Alistair.

On paper it makes sense, : ), but in reality there might be other important considerations to, well, consider.

One of the biggest challenges (as Magazines and Newspapers are finding out) it is very difficult to charge for “premium inventory”. (Mostly because I don’t think they quite grasp to human expectations if you only charge humans one penny for something. One of my fav posts: http://redeye.firstround.com/2007/03/the_first_penny.html)

On twitter this problem is compounded because there is so little premium inventory.

So perhaps an experiment where the premium inventory (or the increasing number of companies using it as a marketing channel) gets monetized but the rest stay free (“just had coffee” twitter update is still free! :)).

My skills are in common sense analytics so very far away from the problem you are trying to solve. I have no alternative to offer you.

But I have to imagine that there is a model that is coming which will rethink the value of a “comment” / “tweet” and the value that adds to companies / products / services (the impact of the much vaunted social graph!).

This made me think of that: http://economining.stern.nyu.edu/

Great post, thanks for pushing the conversation forward.

-Avinash.

By: Parker Fairfield

Parker Fairfield — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:40:25 +0000

It’s not a stretch to imagine people paying pennies a day to follow a SME – it’s already reality. The intelligence, knowledge, connections that many on Twitter have equal/surpass print media.

John Q Public realizes that there is inherent value in following (via subscription) individuals – or groups of them tweeting under 1 Twitter Handle – the Twitter / PayPal / eBay connection will occur.

Perhaps there’ll be a new continuum offered – showing the differential of newly subscribed followers versus previously subscribed that’ve left.

Perhaps a vertical component demo’ing some sort of contentment with the tweets provided (eBay’s star system)

Perhaps they’ll make it 3D by displaying # of paying followers versus parasitic followers (as they’ll clearly HAVE TO allow the Twitter poster the OPTION of providing the Tweet to ALL or only to the paying customers (else, how would the Twitter poster get more customers).

Oh, and IMO Twitter will need to own the best of the Bit.ly and other ancillary sites – so that they can reap what they sow.

By: Sam Johnston

Sam Johnston — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:43:37 +0000

Ok that sounds more dire than intended… in this environment people tend to be reasonably careful about spending money so they may well have something interesting/innovative. They could well afford to reveal it some time soon though (unless it’s offensive/invasive and they want to wait for the growth to taper off before reaping the rewards).

Sam

By: Sam Johnston

Sam Johnston — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:22:56 +0000

Interesting idea, but didn’t we learn a decade or so ago that people won’t pay for subscriptions?

I’m more inclined to think that the eventual business model is either a> an overrated anti-climax, b> a gmail style content sniffing contextual ad system or c> both.

Here’s another idea:
1. Claim to have an awesome business model
2. Monitor the speculation for awesome business models
3. ???
4. Profit!!!

Incidentally I’d see twitvertisements in the same vein as textvertisements and would probably move fairly quickly to another provider.

Sam