It looks as though Twitter will soon announce plans to charge businesses and power-users for additional features. Twitter’s rise in the US and UK has been incredible over the last few months. For me the main marker has been the celebrity influx – seeing Stephen Fry and Jonathan Ross catching up with Jason Calacanis and Robert Scoble demonstrates how the user base is evolving.
I’m actually quite surprised that Twitter is making this step already. This surprise is perhaps due to the way other social networks have dragged their feet in the past, relying on VC money to consolidate a user base before experimenting with monetisation. Facebook has perhaps proved that this is a bad strategy. But it was in no way certain that Twitter would buck the trend. It has enough in the coffers to continue growing its legion of fans for some time.
So Twitter’s move is a bold one. The new ‘definition box’ at the top left seems to suggest that some sort of advertising is on its way – even if only experimental. And advertising does seem to be an obvious step at least in some form.
But these latest rumours are for me the most interesting development. I think its a potentially winning formula for a few reasons:
Additive rather than subtractive
What Twitter has done so far is to build a highly simple, but effective network. When something works so well, the obvious next step is to add more and more functionality. Twitter has stuck to simplicity. The other common trend is to bring in ‘premium’ layers that restrict certain existing functionality behind a pay-wall. Restricting what users currently get for free is a very dangerous approach. It is good to see that Twitter seems to be planning to offer additional business-focused features at a price on top of existing functionality. This will improve experience for these users rather than restrict it for all.
Reduced reliance on advertising
We all know that advertising is suffering and online ad spend, whilst continuing to rise, will reach saturation soon. As advertising pounds are stretched further and further it will become more important for sites like Twitter and Facebook (and news portals) to find other options. Twitter’s reluctance to merely slap advertising all over the site is, in my mind, refreshing.
Adds value to Twitter.com
One of Twitter’s key strengths is its API. By allowing other platforms, software and devices to access its, the popularity of Twitter has grown. This is again in opposition to Facebook’s closed approach. However, the API does reduce the importance of Twitter.com as a destination. And this reduces the effect of on-site advertising too, although including adverts in the API would be an option (with a potential for revenue sharing with application developers), but one that would significantly impact user experience. By adding more value to Twitter.com (i.e. the new features) you give power-users a reason to return to the site.
It will be interesting to see further details when these are made available, but in theory, this is a bold step that has the potential to be very successful. It also seems to give a degree of credibility to the use of Twitter as a promotional/marketing channel (if this were needed).
