DISQUS

louisgray.com: louisgray.com: Christian Science Monitor Covers Twitter's Secret

  • John · 10 months ago
    I would say that the basic services of Twitter should be kept free. But based on what @Noah and @Arlene says, I feel that Twitter can provide additional services at a cost. But I don't like ads coming up with the tweets. Ads on profile is still acceptable.
  • Arlene Wszalek · 10 months ago
    I'm relatively new to Twitter, but have come to value it tremendously already. It seems to me that Twitter will ultimately need to monetize its value in order to continue providing the service. So whether we consumers pay a fee, or Twitter realizes that value by charging for corporate accounts, by showing us ads, by offering premium services etc. - I would rather see the utility of the service continue to be available than have it fold due to lack of revenue.
  • Noah David Simon · 10 months ago
    if I pay for twitter do they still censor me?
  • Noah David Simon · 10 months ago
    I am serious. I will pay if twitter stops picking on me
  • freeryan · 10 months ago
    Eloquent as usual Louis.

    I wouldn't pay for Twitter, and I wouldn't like ads inline with tweets. Reminds me what Tim O'Reilly said, "Web 2.0.... people add value." How that value gets quantified into ongoing costs for paychecks, hardware, and bandwidth is unclear to me. Aren't the investors hoping to get paid off some day?

    I think agents like Google should be looking less at Twitter specifically, and more at future solutions similar to FriendFeed's "best" feature, on steroids, and inclusive of all social mediums.
  • kaarlows · 10 months ago
    I think Google already took a step towards Twitter when purchasing Jaiku, but I still don't understand why they didn't promote it, as it has some really interesting features, principally "lifestream".
  • Adam Singer · 10 months ago
    Great quotes, Mr. Gray. I think you nailed it.
  • Roger · 10 months ago
    If Twitter makes people pay, they will turn to other similar services. Twitter taps into an essential human need that goes way beyond one particular platform. But if one company chooses to charge, another will offer a free service as it too will search for ways to monetize.
  • steve Garfield · 10 months ago
    Many times the first place I hear breaking news is on twitter, then I go to twitter search to see the activity pile up.
  • patrickd88 · 10 months ago
    I think you hit the nail on the head when you pointed out that customers are going to expect it to remain free. Would I pay for Twitter? Maybe, but it would have to be very small. But the other side of the coin, it's usefulness would drop as others decided not to pay and dropped out.

    You get what I mean? Twitter is useful because so many people are there. It's not about whether one person alone would pay. It's about whether everyone would pay and keep the network large.