Twitter to Launch Business Tools by Year-End | Hacker News Reader

Twitter to Launch Business Tools by Year-End

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It baffles me that they're taking this long. Quite honestly, if I had invested in Twitter, I'd be on them like white on rice to get /something/ out business-wise. It doesn't have to be good, it just has to bring something to the table and set the stage for future money-making.

Perhaps we simply have ideological differences, but I can't help but think they just really don't see the importance of moving quickly on this.

You remember earlier today how Amazon just put several startups out of business with their auto scaling and whatnot?

Here's the lesson: if you own the platform, and the platform's growing, grow the platform as big as you can because you can always add tools for monetization later. When you add tools, they become the default. (example: Facebook Photos.)

The mindset is totally different when you're growing a VC-backed company. The rational thing to do when you have capital to spare is to go for growth - it's just not the same as bootstrapping with a back pocket full of cash. You run the business differently.

Plus, the minute you start making money, the metrics totally change. What's the metric Twitter investors use right now? Tweet views[1].

The only example I can think of that failed was eBay's BillPay and it turns out that PayPal was a platform with its own viral nature, not a mere feature (oh, and they burned $180 million before they hit breakeven[2]).

[1]http://www.businessinsider.com/what-twitter-really-wants-fro... [2] http://www.pehub.com/40062/peter-thiel-on-valleywag-its-the-...

I think the biggest problem with this view is that it assumes users will stick around if things stay the same. Twitter may be growing at impressive rates right now, but will that continue, and will the users actually continue using the service? I simply can't see the majority of these users sticking around without there being more to it, in the form of value-added services.

In addition, there are many cases of the "grow the platform" idea failing: Myspace and Youtube are damn good ones. Yes, they both have lots and lots of users, but where are they in terms of profit? Last I heard, they're both operating at a significant loss, although I haven't seen numbers for Myspace in a while.

Okay so if this is the model that their going with, and I've been hearing this one for while. It would seem that they are trying to go after the same market that yelp, uservoice, and getsatification are all gravitating around albeit from different starting points. Which is fine, its a large profitable market.

But then what differentiates them?

>It will be “simple stuff” such as lightweight analytics

okay...so technology as the driver has just walked out the door.

It seems like their sales pitch towards businesses will be based on the size of their user base. Which if thats the case won't they inevitably lose to Facebook? Facebook has a user base several times larger and as we've all seen Facebook is ready, willing, and happy to copy whatever works from whomever.

That's why it's so important to move quickly on this. They seem to think they'll keep growing the way they have, and that they're going to keep their user base by keeping things the same. In reality, their users are going to leave unless they get value-added services out the door /now/, not "by year's end".

I actually think they can make a lot of money.

Look at the prices Get Satisfaction charges: http://getsatisfaction.com/pricing

Think of the number of companies on Twitter.

I don't see a reason why they wouldnt pay $100/month to be able to engage with more users/ engage with users more easily.

Call me skeptical but I suspect this is a stall technique, perhaps to implement some of their ideas.

Given their recent media attention and emphasis on new users, I will be surprised to see a business model any more innovative than advertising. However, I really hope to be surprised!

If none of these plans pan out, I'd be surprised if they continue the non-ads approach.

I hope they figure it out though, they'd be a great case study on a question we'd all like answered.

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