Microblogging service Twitter is one of those things on the Internet that’s mostly famous for being famous, not because it’s somehow discovered the key to Internet riches. Twitter’s 140-characters-at-a-time service has certainly captured a lot of attention and users’ imaginations, but it’s never had a clear business model: the company does not run advertising, does not charge for use of the service, doesn’t offer premium add-ons, and doesn’t sell any products.
Yet, BusinessWeek is reporting that Twitter may actually be in a position to post a profit for 2009, thanks to search deals it struck with Google and Microsoft’s Bing search service. So-called “real-time search”—which covers up-to-the-minute information that people are posting to places like Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking services—became a hot-button differentiator for search engines in 2009, and Twitter seems to have been able to cash in on those deals. According to BusinessWeek, Twitter will pull in about $15 million from Google and another $10 million from Microsoft for letting the services access and index public Twitter feeds. And although Twitter doesn’t publish its operating expenses, BusinessWeek estimates them to be in the range of $20 to $25 million, thanks in part to renegotiated deals with Internet and telecommunications providers.
The bottom line may mean Twitter is in the black for 2009…and it still doesn’t have a real business plan. Twitter has previously announced intentions to develop paid-for premium accounts and services, but so far no announcements have been made.
