Twitter Backup

Louis Gray is reporting today of a new service that fills the (frequent) hyper-communication gaps that open up every time Twitter goes down. This one is called twitAbit and it will basically hold your posts until Twitter resumes service. Two observations / questions:

1. What does it say about Twitter that an entire service industry is cropping up to handle its failures?
2. What kind of business model is it that assumes Twitter will also have stability issues? I mean, if Twitter ever gets its act together twitAbit is out of business.

Related Posts: Twitter Sucks

Twitter Sucks

Really. If it was me, I'd be asking for my $15M back.

Twitter Worth $75 Million?

So it is, at least according to the Silicon Alley Insider (SAI) Digital Startup valuation model.

The folks at SAI admit they're working with a limited data set, given that these are private companies and aren't really required to disclose anything. But still, $75 Million for a company with $0 Million in revenue? I don't care what multiples you use, the math just doesn't work.

Some of the data out there indicates that we may be nearing the bursting point of the Web 2.0 Bubble. I remember (fondly) the heyday of the first internet-induced bubble, as I also remember (much-less-fondly) the swift decline. We can expect more of the same this time around - as VC starts to demand (the nerve!) a return on their investment and the seemingly never ending funnel of cash dries up.

Twitter better find themselves a revenue model quick.

Related Posts: Twitter Revenue Model

Twitter Ads

Rumors were floating around today that Twitter was testing in-stream advertisements as a monetization trial. These same rumors were quickly squelched, but it certainly makes you think about where this new media darling's first buck will come from. Some possibilities:

Twitter Advertising
This is the most obvious of the potential solutions. Throw up some banner ads, or insert text / image ads directly into the Twitter stream and, viola, instant revenue. There's a problem with this approach, however, and that problem is targeting. The stream of data that runs across a user's page is far too disparate and non-contextualized to provide any meaningful basis for ad targeting. In a world where vertical ad networks are popping up all over the place and promising a highly identifiable audience to their advertisers, I have to wonder how much value Twitter ads will have. And without value, you can surely expect a low-grade of advertiser.

Twitter Affiliate Links
In the lead-gen, affiliate marketing space, there's an opportunity for Twitter to dynamically insert product / service links into the stream. For example, when a user is posting about watching Dexter Season 1 on DVD, the appropriate text could be turned into a link that would drive users to a point of purchase. This might be more effective from a click-thru and ROI perspective as it would keep the Twitter steam pure and, if implemented properly, provide meaningful contextual links.

Twitter Co-Brands / White Label Solutions
Really pushing the envelope on this one but with everybody and their mother wanting a social network these days, Twitter could offer a hosted micro-blogging solution either direct to client or via partnerships with some of the social media platforms (Ning, Small World Labs, etc., etc.,). Though, now that I've just typed that sentence, I realize that the Twitter API may render something like this of little value.

Twitter CPC
There are some interesting collaborative filtering offerings out there, and one company taking this to an interesting place is Loomia. Their SeenThis? product provides content recommendations based on a user's connections in Facebook (they're aiming to expand out to the other social platforms as well). A Loomia client can have links to their content displayed on Facebook profiles and then pay on a CPC basis anytime a user is delivered to their site. A similar implementation on Twitter could be very interesting and would be an innovative way to leverage (and monetize) the social graph.

These are just some ideas that popped into my head while reading the coverage today. I'd be interested to hear any other thoughts folks have on how Twitter can capitalize on the huge traction they currently have.