You may well be right, Amanda – Twitter may just be a fad that paves the way to profitable or even more user friendly microblogging platforms (flutter, anyone?) but I’m more inclined to go with Chris Dusseldorp on this one.
The difficulty Twitter have now is to commercialise without destroying their customer base. After all, I use Twitter for its simplicity. There is a certain purity in the interface that would be irrevocably sullied by blatant monetization. You have to be careful that you don’t bite the hand that tweets.
The core user base of Twitter is composed of writers – cynical, angry writers. And they hate advertising. Twitter is the Zen-monastery of social media right now, and money-talk is a major turn-off. Don’t think the guys on Twit-mountain they haven’t thought about it, though.
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
