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While Twitter's founders are struggling to figure out exactly how to cash in on their creation, others may have found a way.
Lolplaying, a gaming company, seems to have found a new way to make some cash with their new role-playing game called 140Mafia (a reference to how many characters you use to tweet). The company is trying to harness Twitter's ability to make money by teaming with Super Rewards, which is a "virtual currency" service that makes a great deal of cash from various forms of online recreation.
Super Rewards gives online and mobile game players a way to get an "upper hand" against opponents by paying a price. This price is a willingness to accept offers from advertisers. Super Rewards uses this model on Facebook, MySpace, and the iPhone; and the company's co-founder (Jason Bailey) is rather confident that the union will pay off on Twitter.
Recently, Super Rewards started selling extra points and powers to Twitterers (known as "tweeple") when 140 Mafia's text-based game debuted. Bailey bragged, "I'm already making more money from Twitter than Twitter itself." In fact, Bailey believes that other programmers and game designers are going to scurry to capitalize on the potential represented by Twitter. It should be noted that Twitter has refused any overtures from Super Rewards to create an alliance.
If this situation comes to fruition, Bailey believes Twitter will have to impose more controls over external applications, which is an approach that Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has used in regards to the iPhone. This would make sense, as any innovation of this ilk could inundate Twitter and its "tweeps."
What about Twitter? Biz Stone (Twitter co-founder) did not respond to an Associated Press request for a comment in regards to this story. However, in the past, he has noted that the company doesn't need to generate revenue at the time, mainly because it has retained a majority of the initial $55 million it raised from venture capitalists.
As for Super Rewards, it doesn't need any venture capital, as the company is on pace to reach $100 million in revenue this year. Bailey noted that most people pay $10 for a competitive edge, but some game players have "forked over thousands of dollars." Why? Bailey admits "It's all about ego and status for them ... Clearly, some people have more money than brains." Amen.
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