How many times have you come across viral tweets from Twitter and you see tweets shared on various other social media platforms?
Interestingly, about 500 million tweets are shared on Twitter per day! Twitter also boasts 199 million daily active users worldwide.
The huge numbers can make you wonder what exactly Twitter does or how it became a multi-million dollar company.
Twitter: A Bit Into Their History
Twitter is a microblogging platform created by Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Noah Glass, and Jack Dorsey in 2006. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States, Twitter has become a raging fire in the internet world.
It has attained global popularity since its launch. At present, the platform is the ninth largest social networkacross the world.
By 2012, Twitter had over 100 million users posting around 340 million tweets per day. It handled more than 1.6 billion search queries daily. Soon, Twitter became one of the top 10 most visited websites in 2013.
It has also become one of the largest news breaking sources over time. For instance, it gained a lot of traction during the Presidential Elections in the US. In 2016, around 40 million election-related tweets were posted before 10 pm that particular day.
Twitter went public in 2013, where it was valued at $31 billion on the first day of issuing the Initial Public Offering.
Twitter’s ticker code in NYSE is TWTR.
What Can You Do On Twitter?
What defines Twitter and makes it different from other social media platforms is that it focuses on microblogging. This lets you post and read very short posts known as tweets. Tweets have an upper limit of 280 characters, including website links or resources.
On Twitter, you can follow other users and read their tweets on your Twitter timeline. Similarly, those who follow you, can read your tweets on their timelines. You can also follow organizations and celebs you are interested in.
Why Should You Use Twitter?
Twitter has gained a lot of traction among students, policymakers, academicians, celebs, and people in general.
It is an easy-to-use platform that lets you place your opinion within 280 characters. You can engage with people with similar interests, have discussions, and spread important information and news.
If you do not like reading very long articles and paragraphs on your screen, Twitter is the best platform for you.
Twitter helps promote research work by uploading links to news, journal articles, or blogs. You can reach out to millions of people through a tweet or by retweeting other posts. This helps you connect with other experts from your field and build connections.
You can send and receive feedback from other people on your timeline and enhance your quality of work.
Twitter has a large consumer base for the latest news and information sharing between organizations, including the government. It allows companies to tap into new audiences and contribute to discussions on events and topics.
An Insight Into Twitter’s Business Model
Twitter has a business model that resonates with other social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
On Twitter, those who are not registered can also read the tweets. However, you need to be registered on Twitter to post tweets. Twitter has become famous in the past few years and has been called the SMS of the Internet.
Users who are registered can post using the app, SMS, and the Twitter website. Users are allowed to follow other accounts and view the tweets from followed accounts on their timelines. Users can also share pictures, links, and videos via their tweets.
Apart from that, Twitter lets you message other users directly. A recent feature called ‘Spaces’ also allows multiple users to hold live audio conversations.
Shift to Content Creators
Recently, Twitter has shifted its focus towards content creators and video makers, as visual content has the highest engagement in terms of advertising.
The shift from text to video content led to Twitter sharing its revenue with creators. The creators receive 70% of the cut, while the remaining 30% goes to Twitter.
Compared to YouTube, which offers a 55% cut to creators, Twitter has become a more profitable platform. It is also investing in bringing live-streaming to its platform with Periscope.
Twitter focuses on advertising and content creation revenue. It purchased the digital rights of NFL for $10 million in 2016. This helped Twitter get exclusive rights to all NFL-related events, which increased its ad revenue and spiked its user base.
Despite competition from Facebook and YouTube, Twitter can increase profits by ensuring cost management. It also depends on acquisitions and partnerships for revenue growth and strengthening the business model.
Twitter also spends a huge amount on research and development. For instance, in 2019, it spent around $680 million on R&D. Moreover, Twitter spends a considerable amount on sales and marketing to widen its audience.
Value Proposition For Stakeholders
Twitter offers its stakeholders several benefits.
- User Benefits: Share content on a global scale, connect with millions, and participate in discussions.
- Advertiser Benefits: Unique and viral ad formats that connect with audiences across the globe in real.
- Data Partner Benefits: Easy access to data to analyze and produce insights for monetization.
Twitter is a large-scale social media platform where you can post your tweets or retweet someone else’s post or tweet. This helps share information across a large number of people quickly and efficiently.
The unique point about Twitter that made it so famous was the concept of using only 280 characters to convey otherwise huge chunks of information.
Tweets have gone viral across the world, with millions of people consuming information with just a click. With people switching to Twitter for news and updates, the future for Twitter looks promising.
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