“How is Twitter going to make money?” – This is the question which seems to crop up again and again online. The latest suggestion comes from Todd Chaffee, an Institutional Venture Partners VC and Twitter board member, who suggested that Twitter may let businesses send branded direct messages.
He told the New York Times :
Commerce-based search businesses monetise extremely well, and if someone says, ‘What treadmill should I buy?’ you as the treadmill company want to be there. As people use Twitter to get trusted recommendations from friends and followers on what to buy, e-commerce navigation and payments will certainly play a role in Twitter monetisation.
I’m not sure how this would work but it doesn’t sound like something which I think would prove to be popular and it’s something which I think could be very easily abused. It doesn’t seem like any of this matters anyways as Twitters top man Evan Williams quickly responded to these suggestions :
Todd is not actually on Twitter’s board and, is brainstorming on his own. These are not in the least bit concrete plans of the company.
I found it a little strange that someone at a venture capital company would claim to be on the board of Twitter and no the ins and outs of a new business model. Seems like any mention of the word Twitter nowadays will get you the attention of a lot of news agencies!
