Why Google should buy Twitter

businessinsider.com

6 points·pathik··4 comments

"Google CEO Eric Schmidt appears to believe that Twitter will coin money someday. Google should buy Twitter even if it thinks Twitter will never make money, merely as a way to get into the social-network business. But if Google thinks that Twitter will eventually bring home the bacon, then all the more reason to grab it."

The opposite is also true.

If Twitter will "switch on" revenue at some point in the near future perhaps it is better to wait and avoid paying at some insane pre-revenue valuation.

The core argument in that article is that Twitter somehow competes with Facebook in a 'social network space'. Twitter is a very different beast to Facebook, with different use cases and user profiles.

Facebook is a great 'social tool' that helps people stay connected with real 'meat-space' friends. Twitter is for following celebrities and geek friends.

Twitter is no magic bullet to compete with Facebook.

That businessinsider article has a nasty audio-visual ad that's set to autoplay. Here is the silent, inanimate prose:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/09/29/...

When I read that headline I was instantly reminded of YouTube. Google should buy Twitter because it's got a massive user base that they will find impossible to monetize as well? Doesn't sound like a good deal to me.

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