Twitter Might Charge For Services In The Future
Twitter’s co-founders state that the quickly growing social site will ultimately charge for its services, but it’s uncertain what will compel profits.
"There will be a moment when you can fill out a form or something and give us money," announced Evan Williams, co-founder and chief executive officer.
"We’re working on it right now," Williams added at The Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital conference.
Williams and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone cited several potential revenue-creators, counting a service that would validate the source of data. For instance, a company could pay fees to verify that impostors do not post updates under its name.
However, the co-founders have not given any specifics of Twitter’s future business model. Stone balked when inquired as to what the company’s key income would be in two years.
Williams noted that although he did not disagree to banner advertising, he was not completely enthusiastic.
"I think it’s probably the least interesting thing we could do," he said.
Williams said instead that one of his main goals was recruiting more people to develop the company. The San Francisco-based company has only 43 employees, he said, which is actually double what it was in January.
The co-founders admitted that the publicity surrounding Twitter is not forever.
"If you pay attention to it too much, you can run yourself off the rails," Stone said. He added, "Pretty soon, everybody’s going to hate us."
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