Over the past few weeks, I've been at a variety of tech conferences. And there was one question that kept coming up: What do you think of Twitter?
The site, which allows for microblogging, is definitely a growing brand. It's cool technology.
But I don't really know the utility of the service. In fact, many of the people I talked to agreed.
Yet, it doesn't seem to matter much. This week, Twitter raised a cool $15 million (according to a report in GigaOm). The valuation? $80 million.
Interestingly enough, Twitter has had some issues with its performance (for example, there have been some outages). Then again, some of its users are constantly typing away on the service – which puts a lot of strain on the infrastructure.
But, I'm still skeptical. How many people have the time to microblog about minute-by-minute details of their lives? And who really cares?
Essentially, I think Twitter is addressing a niche market – not something that will ultimately become mainstream.
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook
Closing Bell: When We All Love the PIIGS (NBG, SQNM, PG, ERTS, KO)
Serious Money: Cheapest Stocks List Shrinks from 26 to 21
Chasing Value: Hasbro Earnings Makes My Point
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-22-2008 @ 4:08PM
Victor Agreda, Jr. said...
I think as mobile web browsing becomes more prevalent you will see this be very mainstream. It plays to the short attention spans, plus egos, plus social networking-- couple that with an already strong mobile presence and it is only a matter of time before a million teenagers are riffing off each other in 140 characters or less.
5-22-2008 @ 4:15PM
sarah gilbert said...
I agree with Victor, I use Twitter constantly and in the past week I've gotten an interview with a Voice of America reporter, gotten mentioned in a BusinessWeek article, and found a replacement nanny, all solely because of Twitter! the thing about Twitter is the investment is super-low (compared to many other social media), but the potential payoff is huge. it's a great way to meet people (no one knows if you 'unfollow' them so you can follow just long enough to find out if they're talking about things that interest you) and if you follow the right people, you can learn some amazing things. I get nearly all my news from Twitter these days!
5-22-2008 @ 4:58PM
David R. Strachan said...
The problem with Twitter is its apparent inability to scale. The technology is sound, and I believe it has applications beyond simple status blurbs and "shout outs." The site is plagued by downtime, which is, of course, an indication of its popularity as well. The real question, however, is the revenue model. Can microblogging be monetized in a "cool" and nonintrusive manner?
5-23-2008 @ 5:34AM
Olga said...
Well, i don't see a reason for 1-string-blog either, but some friends of mine use it as online fun chat, referring to it as a new inet-trend =) doesn't mean, it will last long though