Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Twitter business model: Ads, no; T-shirts, yes


Micro-blogging service Twitter is saying no to advertising as a way to generate revenue for the money-losing venture. But it’s found another way to make money: T-shirts.
Twitter has partnered with Threadless to launch Twitter Tees by Threadless, the official Twitter-sanctioned T-shirt store, according to Mashable.
Threadless CEO Thomas Ryan declined to discuss financial terms of the deal, Mashable reported. But you have to assume Twitter is getting a cut of sales.
Wow, T-shirt sales. That’s going to make Twitter a lot of money. Oh, and they aren’t even the first to sell T-shirts with custom tweets off Twitter. TWItoShirt and Twitshirt beat them too it, according to Mashable.
Meanwhile, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said Monday that Twitter is working on various ways to make money, but advertising is not an option currently being considered. Stone says Twitter is developing various add-on tools and services for businesses and professional users of Twitter, according to the New York Times.
Again, that doesn’t sound like a very exciting business.
I’ll admit I’m a little fixated on Twitter. It’s like a car accident and I can’t look away. It’s attracting lots of rubberneckers and gawkers, but most will drive on by and forget about it soon.
Twitter might be around for a long time in some shape or form. But I can’t see how it’s ever going to be profitable.

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