Harriston+K+Strategy+Report

Harriston. K
 *  TO:  ** Proximity Social Networking Team
 *  FROM: ** Kendra Harriston
 *  DATE: ** Feb 21, 2010
 *  SUBJECT: ** Twitter Strategy Analysis

 Here is my strategy analysis for the microblogging website, Twitter.   Gen Y users have adopted Twitter as one of their primary sources for finding out what is currently going on, whether it be about their friends or some event occurring in real time.  <span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> **<span style="color: black; text-indent: 0in !important;"><span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in !important;">Profile   **<span style="text-indent: 0in !important;">

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<span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in !important;">Twitter was started back in 2006 when creator, Jack Dorsey, came up with an idea for a “short message service (SMS)” in order  ====== <span style="color: black; text-indent: 0in !important;">

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<span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in !important;">to communicate with a small group of people. (Wikipedia 2010). The original name of the site was “twttr,” which was influenced  ======

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<span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in !important;">by the name of the yahoo based photo website, “Flickr.” After the first prototype of Twitter was used as an internal messaging  ======

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<span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in !important;">service for employees of Odeo, a website for RSS syndicated video and audio, members of Odeo formed “Obvious Corporation”  ======

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<span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in !important;">users use the site to post messages, thoughts, etc, that are under 140 characters, to fellow “followers.” Because Twitter is a  ======

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<span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in !important;">free service, obvious it is not making any money, except for the funding it has received from venture capitalists firms, such  ======

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 * ======<span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in !important;">Spark Capital  ======
 * ======<span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in !important;">Insight Ventire Partners  ======
 * ======<span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in !important;">Square Ventures  ======
 * ======<span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in !important;">Union Square Ventures  ======
 * ======<span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in !important;">Bezos Expeditions  ======
 * ======<span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in !important;">Digital Garage  ======

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<span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in !important;">Today, Twitter has about over 14 million people using the site (Ostrow, 2009). Even though the site makes no from from  ======

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<span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in !important;">its users, it is estimated that Twitter will earn about $1.54 billion in revenue, about 1 billion users, 5,200 employees, and  ======

<span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in !important;">$111 million in net earnings. (New York Times, 2009)
Competitive Landscape   **<span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="color: #000000; text-indent: 0in !important;"><span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in !important;">Although Twitter is the only microblogging website of its kind, the question is: can Twitter become more than just a current fad? Sure, most users on the site follow the messages posted by their favorite celebrities, but how long are these users going to be following celebrities, or sending mini messages and posts to their friends and other members. The longevity of this company is going to solely depend on the fickleness of users. <span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> **<span style="color: black; text-indent: 0in !important;"><span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in !important;"> Twitter’s Strategy   **<span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="color: black; text-indent: 0in !important;"><span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in !important;">As said before, users on Twitter can send “tweets” to their fellow “followers” about things going on in their daily lives, such as what they’re currently doing; pretty much you can say whatever you want to say. The only restriction is that your message can only be max of 140 characters (About Twitter, 2010). This limit stems from the limit on the amount of characters in a typical cell phone text message (between 140-160 characters.) Due to the popularity of Twitter, have applications have been created to further expand Twitter accessibility. One application called “Twitpic” allows users to upload a picture (from a computer or cell phone) and post though via a “tweet.” Other applications include: “Ubertwitter,” “Hootsuite,” “Tweetdeck,” “Echophone,” and “Twitvid.”   <span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> **<span style="color: black; text-indent: 0in !important;"><span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in !important;"> Gen-Y Implications   **<span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="color: black; text-indent: 0in !important;"><span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in !important;">Twitter may be one of the most popular sites in the social networking arena, but how is company going to last if it is not making any money? One suggestion is possibly charging users who have the most user traffic on the site, notably the celebrities, like Ashton Kutcher, and businesses like Best Buy, or even CNN. The thing is, in the long run, if a business decided to create a Twitter page, would paying for a page even benefit them?
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<span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"><span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in !important;">Twitter. (2009, November). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter   <span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="color: #000000; text-indent: 0in !important;"><span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in !important;">About Twitter. (2010). Retrieved from http://twitter.com/about Ostrow, Adam. (2009). How many People actually use twitter?. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2009/04/28/twitter-active-users/ Miller, Claire Cain, & Stone, Brad. (2009, July 15). Hacker exposes private twitter documents. The New York Times,   <span style="text-indent: 0in !important;">
 * <span style="text-indent: 0in !important;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0in !important;">References:  ** <span style="text-indent: 0in !important;">