So maybe Twitter doesn’t need a business model because the model is to 1) get scale and 2) sell. The question then is, who would buy Twitter?
We know it won’t be Google.
That leaves only a few players…
I don’t see Yahoo picking up Twitter. However, it would be cool to see a real ‘omnipresence network’ develop where a profile travels from Twitter to MyBlogLog to Flickr to another potential buy –me.dium.
However, my guess for best integration is with AOL. Using a link between Tweets and AIM could be really fascinating along the lines of status updates. Yes, there is some integration now, but a Twitter is sufficiently different from an IM that this would work well. AOL also has tried to launch its AIM Pages social network (Why does no one ever talk about AIM Pages anymore?) and that was a huge disappointment. AOL needs back in the game to remain relevant. By its recent integration with Gmail AOL is showing some signs of life. While AOL doesn’t have much in the way of cash, assuming a spin-off is going to happen soon, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them make a play to get back to the ‘communicationsâ€� side of the business model instead of purely focusing on advertising.
Side Note 1: Could Twitter make (or be making) money from an SMS deal with a telecom?
Side Note 2: One of the best guides to using Twitter was in fact written and posted to the AOL developer blog.
Side Note 3: Mark Evans suggests a scenario of Facebook buying Twitter. I don’t see the benefit of this largely because Facebook would be harvesting its own demographic. The difference as I see it for AOL, is that AOL stands to gain a more social media savvy demo through an acquisition.Â