Last week we asked our readers to help Twitter find a revenue model. We received a great amount of responses that we hope Twitter can take into consideration. From API’s to the traditional ad-based model, we heard it all. The topic at hand and the amount of responses generated would let anyone know that a revenue model for Twitter is pretty important for various reasons. Fred Wilson of venture capital firm, Union Square Ventures initially thought otherwise, but has recanted his statements. Nevertheless, VC backers of Twitter have noted that revenue models for the micro-blogging service will be coming in the first half of 2009.
Revenue Models Coming in 2009
Wired.com interviewed several of Twitter’s VC backers who remain “bullish” on the subject. Investor Bijan Sabet of Spark Capital notes that Twitter will introduce a business model of some kind within the first half of next year. Others are also betting that Twitter will find a revenue model this late in the game just like Google. Henry Blodget of SAI even suggested a future valuation of $1 billion or more for Twitter. We think anything is possible at this point.
A Dumb Question
Earlier we noted that Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures initially felt the question of whether Twitter would monetize was the stupidest question in the world. He stated:
“It’s like the stupidest question in the world: How’s Twitter going to make money. It’s like ‘How was Google going to make money? Eventually Google was going to make money and they figured out how to do it and they figured out a great business, and I think the same thing is true with Twitter.”
Wilson has recanted his statements, but we do agree that Twitter could very well duplicate Google’s formula for success. However, Google is not Twitter and vice versa. We’re talking about two completely different services. There’s still a chance that Twitter won’t find a successful revenue model. For all we know, luck may have been on Google’s side. Up until recently, Twitter couldn’t say the same with numerous outages and stability issues plaguing the service. Personally, I agree with Mark Evans sentiment that the question is not dumb at all. The question at hand could arguably be one of the most important questions any company could ever answer.
