Twitter Turns a Profit
After years of speculation as to how – and if –Twitter would ever be able to make money, the social networking site has found a way to start raking in the dough. Twitter just recently struck deals with Google and Bing search engines that have finally enabled the company to move into the black.
Twitter’s deals will allow Bing and Google’s search engines to search the short messages, or “tweets,” that appear on Twitter’s site. The deals are expected to bring as many as $25 million to Twitter. Twitter’s business plan was developed to generate users instead of revenue, so the company’s owners and approximately 105 employees are surely glad to see a change.
Twitters books and financial records are private, so any estimation of the company’s expenses is pure speculation. But according to experts’ educated estimates, Twitter has made roughly $155 million since being founded in 2006. The cost of running the Twitter service is an estimated $20 to $25 million annually.
By giving Bing and Google access to their information, Twitter has given two of the largest search engines the ability to search up-to-the-minute data. This could be useful for web searchers looking for first-hand information as it is updated. If, for example, someone wondered what the wait was at a particular restaurant for a table, a Google or Bing search could potentially yield a tweet from a Twitter user at said restaurant.
The Future of Twitter
Experts believe that this partnership with search engines can only lead to more money making opportunities for Twitter. We will get our first glimpse at the new, profitable Twitter in early in 2010 when the company plans to start using an advertising program. According to sources at Twitter, the company plans to initiate an “organic” advertising program. By this they mean a way to present advertisements that will work with the way users read and update their Twitter accounts without disruption.
