Twitter is an amazing platform when you really think about it. Who would have imagined that a system that limits users to just 140 characters could ever have become such a massive hit with users? Yet almost 10 years later Twitter has 236 Million monthly active users, many of whom access the site via their mobile devices.
You will find more statistics at Statista
It’s not all good news though. Twitter is struggling to make money. Their advertising platform hasn’t achieved the success they were hoping for and the numbers of new users is slowing.
You will find more statistics at Statista
Twitter’s big selling point is the fast communication style interaction between users. The fixed character length might be a pain sometimes but it doesn’t allow you to waffle so conversations are kept short and snappy making it a perfect tool for the media and for companies to take customer enquiries.
But the advertising that is supposed to sustain the service also annoys users and isn’t generating the profits they need to keep the servers running indefinitely.
The future may lie in a buy-out from one of the bigger, more profitable rivals – probably Google. I say “probably” as Facebook have also been linked to a possible buy-out but I can’t see them buying a service they could so easily replace if Twitter were to disappear. No, my money (virtual that is) is on Google to buy Twitter. After all, they have struggled in the social media area for years and have never really managed to come up with anything as good or as popular as Twitter or Facebook.
Joining with Google makes sense for Twitter also. Their advertising platform could be integrated into Adsense giving it access to a massive advertising market and allow advertisers to access Twitter’s busy users. Google certainly has the skill base to manage Twitter and they can handle the technology but the question is what would they then do with Google+.
Perhaps there’s an option from left field instead? Yahoo or even Microsoft might be interested in the platform with Microsoft seeming to make more sense out of the two. If I was to go out on a limb, I would even suggest one of the larger media companies might be keen – especially given how popular Twitter has become with radio, movies and T.V. shows – possibly charging production companies to use the service in their broadcasts.
My guess for Twitter’s future? It will certainly be bought out and that can only be done by a corporation with deep pockets and a way to integrate it into it’s existing services so the money has to be on Google.
