Twitter

Twitter.com claims to be a microblogging and social networking website with ‘a difference’. The idea behind twitter is simple – express your thoughts in 140 characters at a time;  similar to a mobile SMS. Each internet ‘SMS’ is called a ‘Tweet’, and is published to a list of users known as followers. Thousands of people ‘tweet as they think’ , and one of the most tweeted question is ‘how does twitter make money?’

Twitter has indeed revolutionized the world – voicing your opinion was never so easy. Just say it out loud to the world. Say what you have to according to the changing trends. Osama bin Laden killed? Voice your opinion on it. Who should win the next Football world cup? Say it out loud, and the world will listen to you.

Those who use Facebook.com or some Google product, can visibly identify the ads placed on various locations of the webpage, and through these they generate revenue. But Twitter? Not a single ad on any page – quite surprising! How to they earn?

Before we get to that, it is important to stress that all tweets are searchable on the website, and they feature in the search results of Google, Bing, and Yahoo search engines. Hint hint – Yes, Twitter sells it’s tweets related to a particular topic to these search engines, and that’s one way  of making money. Twitter sells the rights to publish live tweets on any hot, trending topic (for example, the Football world cup, or The Royal Wedding of William and Kate). Search engines get live data, and unique comments through each tweet. As a by-product, Twitter gets more users. An ideal win-win situation!

Another money-generating model is to show “Promoted Tweets”. Advertisers pay Twitter to show their tweets in top search results, along with their company name. Likewise, there are “Promoted Trends” where How Does Twitter Make Money? The advertiser’s product related trends are featured on the website. Major companies like Coca cola, Starbucks, and Disney have already made deals with Twitter to promote...