The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Twitter has raised another $35 million in venture capital — a remarkable vote of confidence for a company that has “very little” income.
Twitter has been growing substantially, with co-founder Biz Stone reporting that “tweets” are up 90% in the past year. According to analyst site Hitwise, Twitter's traffic has increased 10-fold in the last year and last week even surpassed fellow social media site Digg.
Some analysts speculate that Twitter is killing IM and blogs, as well. For all it's growth, it Twitter still hasn't hit the mainstream. You'll know that happens when grandma starts tweeting. “just took my dentures out…” Unfortunately for Twitter, part of the attraction was the cool factor. If everyone is using it, is it really cool anymore?
Joe Ball says
I don’t see why Twitter keeps getting so much money. They don’t make any. They have a product that is hot, but what is hot today, is usually not tomorrow.
Jeff Hester says
I agree, Joe. Twitter has begun hinting that they may start charging for companies who have “official” twitter accounts. That’s a start, but I don’t know if that’s enough to warrant their current valuation.
Leon says
where do they get their money from? it’s not like they have ads or anything
Jeff Hester says
Good question, Leon. Currently, they raise money through investors (venture capitalists). There have been rumblings that they may begin charging for “corporate” Twitter accounts, and there is always the opportunity for them to inject advertising into their “streams.”
For Twitter, their “end game” is likely to be bought by a bigger fish (Google is one such fish that might snap them up). But at least one analyst is advising anyone interested against buying Twitter — for the simple reason that they currently have no viable means of generating revenue