Twitter and Yammer Test Dot-com Business Models

nytimes.com

29 points·razorburn··3 comments

"... 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... So Yammer is going for a profitable niche.

What is Twitters niche?

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 :)]

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).

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