Twitter is an online platform that allows users to post short messages known as tweets. Over the past few years, however, Twitter’s strategy has been challenged by analysts who claim that the company’s value does not reflect the challenges that Twitter has been facing in a bid to monetize its platform (Mark, 2010). The aim of this essay is to present a brief history of the company, as well as assessing its sustainability. Finally, alternate monetization strategies will be recommended.
Twitter is mostly famed for being influential during political and social events (Mark, 2010). The company was founded by Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey (Mark, 2010). Before it was formed, they were working for Odeo Inc., a company that focused on creating content for the podcast industry (Mark, 2010). However, due to the entry of major companies like Apple Inc. into the industry, the investors of Odeo decided to change company strategies. Jack Dorsey then came up with a platform that would enable the company’s employees to share messages with each other using their cellular phones (Mark, 2010). The idea was soon adopted and was rolled out to the public in 2006 (Mark, 2010). For Twitter, nonetheless, it soon became hard to meet its performance goals. For example, the company had predicted that in 2013 there would be one billion Twitter users, while in reality, the total number turned out to be only 200 million (Mark, 2010). Today, Twitter’s main revenue streams come from advertisements (Mark, 2010). Moreover, investors have continued to buy company shares after it went public, a move that has led to Twitter being valued at $8.4 billion (Mark, 2010).
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"Twitter Case".
In conclusion, Twitter needs to find alternate methods to monetize. For example, introduce free internet calls, allow users to group their tweet, or increase the word count of tweets. Companies like Facebook and Skype already have an edge over Twitter. Therefore, in order to continue growing, there is a need for Twitter to reformulate its monetization strategies.
- Mark, K. (2010). Entrepreneurship at Twitter: Building a brand, a social tool or a tech powerhouse. Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation, 910M28(2017-05-04).