Twitter is an internationally renown online social media platform, popular for its freedom for users to express their thoughts and feelings through a variety of medias, eg: words, GIFS, pictures and videos, as well as consume daily news updates and keep up to date with their respective interests. With 340 million international active users, ranging from and including adolescents to famous celebrities it is the 13th largest social media platform (Sehl, 2020) and is the top platform for discovery (Business.Twitter.com, 2020)
Source: Twitter.com (2021)
When looking at Twitter’s business model there is one question which should be answered; How do they make money?
Twitter earns a vast amount of it’s revenue through advertising; allowing businesses and users to pay for different kinds of advertisements, such as promoted tweets, promoted accounts and promoted trends, which users are able to see when using the platform. (Dokadia, 2020)
Data licensing, which is the selling of public data to select companies is another income stream for Twitter. When applied, it means millions of tweets are shared to data companies each day for a fee. (Dokadia, 2020)
These techniques, such as sponsored posts, are often popular with a other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, who both offer their users the option to promote their posts at a cost.
Personally I am currently not an avid user of Twitter, however I love the ease of communication that it allows. Being able to interact with friends by sharing posts with a click of a button, although not uncommon when comparing this feature with other social media platforms, is incredibly valuable. Also the degree of variation of content that I am able to see by choosing who to follow and what is trending, is by far its strongest asset; A balance of news, comedy and genuine insight into ones current thoughts, which I can personally tailor to my tastes makes it a very unique app with a very successful business model.
If you are interested in learning more about the origin story of Twitter, as well as a more in depth look into its business model check this link –
https://whatisthebusinessmodelof.com/business-models/twitter-business-model/
References
Business.twitter.com. 2020. Twitter For Business | Twitter Tips, Tools, And Best Practices. [online] Available at: <https://business.twitter.com> [Accessed 25 January 2021].
Dokadia, Z., 2020. The Real History Of Twitter & Its Business Model. [online] What is the business model of. Available at: <https://whatisthebusinessmodelof.com/business-models/twitter-business-model/> [Accessed 25 January 2021].
Sehl, K., 2020. Top Twitter Demographics That Matter To Social Media Marketers. [online] Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard. Available at: <https://blog.hootsuite.com/twitter-demographics/> [Accessed 25 January 2021].
Twitter. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://twitter.com> [Accessed 25 January 2021].