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jas1414
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What is your opinion about Twitter 02 Dec 2010, 01:36
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Hi,

Now a days twitter is getting very much popular for every one if you are film start, sportsmen, policitian all are using it very much frequently but is it right to say publicly for some one like Amir Khan and Sashi Throor using for clarification or pasting their view on it. if you use it to be famous then one thing is clear you need to post wisely without some one condemned other wise soon you will be get out of focus.

What is your opinion
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What is your opinion about Twitter 02 Dec 2010, 09:46
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Moved to the proper forum

P.S. you may want to clarify your question a bit
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What is your opinion about Twitter 03 Dec 2010, 13:52
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I don't think it has a true business model, ala Facebook and Google.

Trying to leverage short messaging into advertising, but internet advertising itself is a bottomless pit in terms of earning extraordinary profit. Just too many alternatives despite the usefulness of twitter to people.

jas1414
Hi,

Now a days twitter is getting very much popular for every one if you are film start, sportsmen, policitian all are using it very much frequently but is it right to say publicly for some one like Amir Khan and Sashi Throor using for clarification or pasting their view on it. if you use it to be famous then one thing is clear you need to post wisely without some one condemned other wise soon you will be get out of focus.

What is your opinion
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What is your opinion about Twitter 03 Dec 2010, 15:34
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I'd have to respectfully disagree! Internet advertising is a given for any popular website. Twitter, in terms of enabling mass social interconnectivity, fills a perfect niche for social media on the web. No other site (including all major news stations and publications, combined) allows information to be disseminated as quickly and efficiently as twitter. It's like having 190 million reporters spread accross the globe.

Twitter provides the most ridiculously simple service. For free, a user posts a 140 character message to his/her profile. Your followers see it and you can see theirs. Expected earnings in 2010 is $150MM. I can't actually think of a more brilliantly simple, cost effective, and sustainable business model!

Jas1414, I started using twitter recently for work. I use a personal account purely to follow my favourite finance/mba/news feeds. For this purpose, I find it excellent. You can also follow GMAT Club!
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What is your opinion about Twitter 03 Dec 2010, 15:52
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There's no true structural barrier other than technological knowledge that differentiates pop. tech companies (Google, Twitter, Facebook) from one another.

Twitter doesn't have a commoditized product like Oil, and unlike Oil companies, they don't have high structural barriers of entry (investing in an oil field takes serious $$$), whereas any tech company can pitch an idea to a Venture Capital guy in hopes of raising the $5-$10M they need.

Not saying Google is not commoditized. In fact, they have a product that is - Internet Search, which has a high barrier to entry. But Twitter? Do people need Twitter, when Facebook has the same function, along with other myriad programs?

They still don't have a true business model and can't leverage their data like Facebook, which collects so much personal information, they can just repack the data they collect to advertisers however they like. Facebook itself is becoming commoditized, largely because so many people use it nowadays for connectivity purposes.

Without high barriers of entry, the ability to make outsized profits in the long run is nil. Don't see Twitter nestling behind anything at this point.


Rux10
I'd have to respectfully disagree! Internet advertising is a given for any popular website. Twitter, in terms of enabling mass social interconnectivity, fills a perfect niche for social media on the web. No other site (including all major news stations and publications, combined) allows information to be disseminated as quickly and efficiently as twitter. It's like having 190 million reporters spread accross the globe.

Twitter provides the most ridiculously simple service. For free, a user posts a 140 character message to his/her profile. Your followers see it and you can see theirs. Expected earnings in 2010 is $150MM. I can't actually think of a more brilliantly simple, cost effective, and sustainable business model!

Jas1414, I started using twitter recently for work. I use a personal account purely to follow my favourite finance/mba/news feeds. For this purpose, I find it excellent. You can also follow GMAT Club!
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What is your opinion about Twitter 03 Dec 2010, 17:30
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Sorry, I’m confused about your definition of a ‘true’ business model. If you’re saying that structural barriers to entry define whether a company has a successful or sustainable business model, you need to look at several other aspects of a companies operations to come to that conclusion. You need to factor in brand equity for one.

You also have to detail your criterion for what you consider to be a good business model. ‘’Without high barriers of entry, the ability to make outsized profits in the long run is nil’’ You’re making far too many assumptions here to definitively deduce the future of twitter as an investable entity! A company doesn’t need to make ‘outsized’ profits, year on year for it to be called successful. Depending on the size of the company, its cost structure and competition, increasing revenue by 2% year on year for the next ten years could be considered extremely successful. A business model will be successful if it effectively fills a gap in the market, makes a profit, and satisfies its stakeholders.

With regards to high barriers to entry (in the online services industry) Twitter has some of the best. No one, regardless of the best VC backing on the planet, would take on twitter in its core function from scratch. From a marketing perspective, it has already made it into the lexicon of modern web language. The word ‘tweet’ transcends language, social, and geographical barriers. The company has unbelievable levels of spontaneous brand awareness and over 190 million users! Twitter, Facebook, and Google do not serve the same function. They occupy similar but significantly different niches in the social media landscape. Twitter, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and a small few other social media sites operate in a very efficient oligopoly. They each serve a function. If there was no need for twitter right now, it wouldn’t be operating as a company.

If anyone could breakdown twitter and facebooks stronghold on social media, you would think Google would be that company. After all, it has the technical and fiscal resources to release the best social networking site of all time. In fact, it had several forrays into this area and failed miserably! Trying to convert 700 million users from two social institutions like Twitter and Facebook is near impossible, regardless of your resourses. Being first to market and getting a user base when it comes to online social media is key. You can't view their business model and barriers to entry the same as you would a bricks and mortar company. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but is your background mainly (and almost exclusively) in finance?

A certain service will be around only for as long as there is a demand for it. Sure Twitter has no physical commodity to sell. But then again neither do Investment Banks. However this doesn’t mean that every bank in the world has a defunct business model that will amount to exactly ‘nil’ in the future - as you put it in your response. Twitter, in a way, has commoditized the ability to send and access news, information,and knowledge instantly through an extensive network…for free.

Sorry for detracting from your OP Jas1414! My opinion is that twitter is cool, but I don't use it to self promote myself or anything like that. I just get the news feeds I like.
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What is your opinion about Twitter 03 Dec 2010, 18:11
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Let's agree to disagree.

Sorry if my earlier post seemed strong.

Rux10
Sorry, I’m confused about your definition of a ‘true’ business model. If you’re saying that structural barriers to entry define whether a company has a successful or sustainable business model, you need to look at several other aspects of a companies operations to come to that conclusion. You need to factor in brand equity for one.

You also have to detail your criterion for what you consider to be a good business model. ‘’Without high barriers of entry, the ability to make outsized profits in the long run is nil’’ You’re making far too many assumptions here to definitively deduce the future of twitter as an investable entity! A company doesn’t need to make ‘outsized’ profits, year on year for it to be called successful. Depending on the size of the company, its cost structure and competition, increasing revenue by 2% year on year for the next ten years could be considered extremely successful. A business model will be successful if it effectively fills a gap in the market, makes a profit, and satisfies its stakeholders.

With regards to high barriers to entry (in the online services industry) Twitter has some of the best. No one, regardless of the best VC backing on the planet, would take on twitter in its core function from scratch. From a marketing perspective, it has already made it into the lexicon of modern web language. The word ‘tweet’ transcends language, social, and geographical barriers. The company has unbelievable levels of spontaneous brand awareness and over 190 million users! Twitter, Facebook, and Google do not serve the same function. They occupy similar but significantly different niches in the social media landscape. Twitter, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and a small few other social media sites operate in a very efficient oligopoly. They each serve a function. If there was no need for twitter right now, it wouldn’t be operating as a company.

If anyone could breakdown twitter and facebooks stronghold on social media, you would think Google would be that company. After all, it has the technical and fiscal resources to release the best social networking site of all time. In fact, it had several forrays into this area and failed miserably! Trying to convert 700 million users from two social institutions like Twitter and Facebook is near impossible, regardless of your resourses. Being first to market and getting a user base when it comes to online social media is key. You can't view their business model and barriers to entry the same as you would a bricks and mortar company. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but is your background mainly (and almost exclusively) in finance?

A certain service will be around only for as long as there is a demand for it. Sure Twitter has no physical commodity to sell. But then again neither do Investment Banks. However this doesn’t mean that every bank in the world has a defunct business model that will amount to exactly ‘nil’ in the future - as you put it in your response. Twitter, in a way, has commoditized the ability to send and access news, information,and knowledge instantly through an extensive network…for free.

Sorry for detracting from your OP Jas1414! My opinion is that twitter is cool, but I don't use it to self promote myself or anything like that. I just get the news feeds I like.
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What is your opinion about Twitter 04 Dec 2010, 03:57
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USCTrojan2006
Let's agree to disagree.

Sorry if my earlier post seemed strong.

Rux10
Sorry, I’m confused about your definition of a ‘true’ business model. If you’re saying that structural barriers to entry define whether a company has a successful or sustainable business model, you need to look at several other aspects of a companies operations to come to that conclusion. You need to factor in brand equity for one.

You also have to detail your criterion for what you consider to be a good business model. ‘’Without high barriers of entry, the ability to make outsized profits in the long run is nil’’ You’re making far too many assumptions here to definitively deduce the future of twitter as an investable entity! A company doesn’t need to make ‘outsized’ profits, year on year for it to be called successful. Depending on the size of the company, its cost structure and competition, increasing revenue by 2% year on year for the next ten years could be considered extremely successful. A business model will be successful if it effectively fills a gap in the market, makes a profit, and satisfies its stakeholders.

With regards to high barriers to entry (in the online services industry) Twitter has some of the best. No one, regardless of the best VC backing on the planet, would take on twitter in its core function from scratch. From a marketing perspective, it has already made it into the lexicon of modern web language. The word ‘tweet’ transcends language, social, and geographical barriers. The company has unbelievable levels of spontaneous brand awareness and over 190 million users! Twitter, Facebook, and Google do not serve the same function. They occupy similar but significantly different niches in the social media landscape. Twitter, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and a small few other social media sites operate in a very efficient oligopoly. They each serve a function. If there was no need for twitter right now, it wouldn’t be operating as a company.

If anyone could breakdown twitter and facebooks stronghold on social media, you would think Google would be that company. After all, it has the technical and fiscal resources to release the best social networking site of all time. In fact, it had several forrays into this area and failed miserably! Trying to convert 700 million users from two social institutions like Twitter and Facebook is near impossible, regardless of your resourses. Being first to market and getting a user base when it comes to online social media is key. You can't view their business model and barriers to entry the same as you would a bricks and mortar company. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but is your background mainly (and almost exclusively) in finance?

A certain service will be around only for as long as there is a demand for it. Sure Twitter has no physical commodity to sell. But then again neither do Investment Banks. However this doesn’t mean that every bank in the world has a defunct business model that will amount to exactly ‘nil’ in the future - as you put it in your response. Twitter, in a way, has commoditized the ability to send and access news, information,and knowledge instantly through an extensive network…for free.

Sorry for detracting from your OP Jas1414! My opinion is that twitter is cool, but I don't use it to self promote myself or anything like that. I just get the news feeds I like.
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I guess we'll have to! Although, as soon as there's an IPO im loading up on the stuff! Thanks for the chat, this stuff it pretty interesting.
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What is your opinion about Twitter 05 Dec 2010, 18:38
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I like your arguments and they do introduce new concepts to a pure finance person like myself.

I'm a serious investor, primarily in energy, real estate, and telecoms. That might explain why I think barriers to entry are key to succeed in any business.

I have nothing against Facebook, they've monetized their model quite successfully (with help from former Google Executives). However, Twitter is a different animal altogether. I agree with you that the company has transcended whatever heights it needed to rise above in order to place its name and service in front of millions of people. From that respect, it's done quite well in building brand equity. But does this brand equity lead to a commoditized product? In this case, I don't think so. Google has dominated the generalized space (along with Baidu in China). Facebook has and will continue to dominate Social Media because of their first mover advantage in all of the functions created for the website.

Now Twitter's product model is just messages sent across the net. From what I've read, they haven't figured out how to monetize this model just yet. Personally, I don't think they'll ever figure it out. It might be the Friendster/MySpace to facebook. Or Yelp/Citysearch to whatever Google is cooking up in Localized businesses. The space they possess largely overlaps with Facebook in my opinion, and therefore will not be successful in the long run. The company has a large user base, but still highly dependent on venture funding. More likely, I think the company will be bought out (with earnout provisions) as opposed to an IPO, because the service the company provides can be complementary to much of social media.



Rux10
USCTrojan2006
Let's agree to disagree.

Sorry if my earlier post seemed strong.

Rux10
Sorry, I’m confused about your definition of a ‘true’ business model. If you’re saying that structural barriers to entry define whether a company has a successful or sustainable business model, you need to look at several other aspects of a companies operations to come to that conclusion. You need to factor in brand equity for one.

You also have to detail your criterion for what you consider to be a good business model. ‘’Without high barriers of entry, the ability to make outsized profits in the long run is nil’’ You’re making far too many assumptions here to definitively deduce the future of twitter as an investable entity! A company doesn’t need to make ‘outsized’ profits, year on year for it to be called successful. Depending on the size of the company, its cost structure and competition, increasing revenue by 2% year on year for the next ten years could be considered extremely successful. A business model will be successful if it effectively fills a gap in the market, makes a profit, and satisfies its stakeholders.

With regards to high barriers to entry (in the online services industry) Twitter has some of the best. No one, regardless of the best VC backing on the planet, would take on twitter in its core function from scratch. From a marketing perspective, it has already made it into the lexicon of modern web language. The word ‘tweet’ transcends language, social, and geographical barriers. The company has unbelievable levels of spontaneous brand awareness and over 190 million users! Twitter, Facebook, and Google do not serve the same function. They occupy similar but significantly different niches in the social media landscape. Twitter, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and a small few other social media sites operate in a very efficient oligopoly. They each serve a function. If there was no need for twitter right now, it wouldn’t be operating as a company.

If anyone could breakdown twitter and facebooks stronghold on social media, you would think Google would be that company. After all, it has the technical and fiscal resources to release the best social networking site of all time. In fact, it had several forrays into this area and failed miserably! Trying to convert 700 million users from two social institutions like Twitter and Facebook is near impossible, regardless of your resourses. Being first to market and getting a user base when it comes to online social media is key. You can't view their business model and barriers to entry the same as you would a bricks and mortar company. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but is your background mainly (and almost exclusively) in finance?

A certain service will be around only for as long as there is a demand for it. Sure Twitter has no physical commodity to sell. But then again neither do Investment Banks. However this doesn’t mean that every bank in the world has a defunct business model that will amount to exactly ‘nil’ in the future - as you put it in your response. Twitter, in a way, has commoditized the ability to send and access news, information,and knowledge instantly through an extensive network…for free.

Sorry for detracting from your OP Jas1414! My opinion is that twitter is cool, but I don't use it to self promote myself or anything like that. I just get the news feeds I like.

I guess we'll have to! Although, as soon as there's an IPO im loading up on the stuff! Thanks for the chat, this stuff it pretty interesting.
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What is your opinion about Twitter 05 Jan 2011, 19:08
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Twitter: There are a lot of people talking and no one listening, also a whole load of affiliate marketing clogging it up.
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What is your opinion about Twitter 03 Feb 2011, 14:07
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Twitter has definitely become much more popular recently. I think that it is one of the greatest networking sites that a business can have and the best tool for people to become informed on subjects they are interested in. Aside from using it for social networking, you can find so much specific, up-to-date information from all types of businesses - magazines, newspapers, clothing stores, sports stations, clubs, celebrities, political figures. Basically everyone is utilizing the simplicty and directness of Twitter to target more than just their niche audience. Short captions and links enable people to read only what they are interested in.
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What is your opinion about Twitter 14 Feb 2011, 22:56
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I'm also intrigued and my new year resolution is to Tweet every day for a month. I am yet to choose the month.