Tag Archives | Twitter

The University of Southern California’s Center for the Digital Future released details of a survey Monday that found that half of all Americans have used a micro-blogging service such as Twitter. However, the more striking result was the response to a question if they would pay for the service or not.

Researchers could not find a single respondent that said it would pay a fee to use Twitter, which seems to suggest any business model for the company that would revolve around obtaining fees from its users would likely fall flat on its face.

“Twitter has no plans to charge its users, but this result illustrates, beyond any doubt, the tremendous problem of transforming free users into paying users,” CDF Director Jeffrey Cole said in a statement. “Online providers face major challenges to get customers to pay for services they now receive for free.”

Indeed, such an extreme response also shows that the company has done little to market itself as something that its users actually need. It might also suggest that more advertising and promotion deals may be enroute for the service, which honestly is probably one of the few profitable means of revenue for the microblogging service.

Is the CDF right? Would you not pay for Twitter if you had to?

Looking to get a few extra Twitter followers quick (I always am, follow me at @edoswald), but don’t mind paying for them? You’re in luck: Twitter is apparently considering a promotional offering where users would pay to have their accounts promoted on the website. It’s not exactly clear how it would work, and  whether the user would pay per added follower or a base rate akin to ad impressions.

All Things Digital’s Peter Kafka reports that the move is only in the discussion phase, and Twitter is refusing to to confirm it even exists, saying “We will eventually have full suites of both promoted and commercial products.”

Traditionally Twitter has frowned upon efforts to boost follower counts other than by traditional methods. Even so, there are several companies out there charging tweeters to get them more followers. With Twitter needing ways to make money, the site may see this as one way to do it. But as Mr. Kafka asks, “What, exactly, is the value of a Twitter follower?”