One of Twitter's new backers has been explaining what he sees as the future for the micro blogging service.Todd Chaffee, from Institutional Venture Partners and one of Twitter's new backers, told Ad Age that there is huge potential growth in Twitter and that growth is all about search. He said that was why the Twitter co-founders, who include Biz Stone, walked away from Facebook's $500m takeover offer.Interestingly he says that offer from Facebook to buy Twitter did not only include Facebook shares (add your own valuation) but hard cash as well and a substantial amount as well.Chaffee told the magazine the key to Twitter's future growth is search and in its purchase of Summize last summer. The growth he said would come in evolving its search business from a search of "what's happening -- right now," to searches that will go out to the Twitter audience in the form of Wiki Answer type questions."You put a question out to the global mind, and it comes back," Chaffee told Ad Age. "Millions of people are contributing to the knowledge base. The engine is alive. You get feedback in real time from people, not just documents."In another interview speaking to the Washington Post Chaffe explained more why he invested in Twitter:Simply put he's looking for winners and market leaders who are going to grow at disproportionate levels and Twitter falls into that category. "Twitter is bigger than a lot of people realize and growing faster than a lot of people realize, but it has not hit the mainstream yet. It is just starting."Amusingly his comments come as Richard Eyre, chairman, IAB told the ISBA conference: "Twitter has turned out to be more than the pre-teen drivel we originally thought it was."Word is filtering out beyond journalists, a crack team of celebs and professional social media types. As word filters out and its audience broadens then so does its use.Chaffee told the Post that the reality of Twitter is that it is a network/platform that has millions of users and thousands of applications. "Twitter does three things. It facilitates social connections with friends, colleagues, writers, and celebrities. The second is knowledge transfer. It is a real-time mechanism for tapping the wisdom of millions of people. The third is social expression. It is a mechanism for the global community to express itself."Then there is the big question as far as Twitter is concerned: money. Where is it? Chaffee is pretty sure that it is out there because Twitter is so easy for others to build on top of and potentially more powerful than its larger more established rivals, which don't have its unique combination of a searchable, real time database of what is happening right now.It is this that he says gives Twitter the full set: it is ubiquitous, scalable and persistent."[Twitter is] the only thing we've found that has all of those things. None of the other things out there [Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn] has all of those variables. That is why Facebook tried to buy them."
Follow me on Twitter
Twitter is indeed the tool for tapping the social consciousness of the masses - I turn to twitter to ask for help before searching for the answer. I know that I will get a better answer, more specific and from a trusted source that I have defined.
Summize (searc.twitter.com) and to a lesser extent the Twitter hashtags (http://hashtags.org/) are two leading examples of how the millions of snippets can be harnessed into a wider knowledge base that can be tapped.
Think not how to monetise the individual conversations but the wider growing pool of content and you will be closer to where [I think] the monetisation future is.
Facebook is waking up to the Twitter threat. Yes it’s a threat and the two are going to clash. Having
Pingback from Does Twitter and politics mix?
Having sifted the rumour mill this morning, I'm not sure if there are any gold nuggets there. It
Gordon Macmillan
Blogging for:
Member since: 03 Jun 2008
Last login: 24 Nov 2009
Total Posts: 1,618
