twitter – what future? what strategic path to follow?
DESCRIPTION
Twitter, described as being an easy-to-use, micro-blogging application, instant messenger or social presence notifier and, essentially, as being a broadcasting system that allows users to transmit short bursts of information to lots of strangers, as well as, to friends, has been in the news as one of the “hottest technology companies since Google and Facebook” (source: The Entrepreneurs at Twitter: Building a Brand, a Social Tool or a Tech Powerhouse?, found at https://campus.college.ch/download/assignment/2560). It also has been viewed as an influential factor in socio-political events, such as (and as mentioned on the given article) Senator Barack Obama’s United States (U.S.) presidential campaign, as well as, in political protests in Iran. Despite its astonishing breakthrough into the Market (together with a strong crescent curve growth), by the end of 2009, Twitter had fallen to 24 million users worldwide (when, by mid-2009, the number was up to 29 million) . These figures made analysts wonder and discuss whether this sudden drop in users within only 6 months was indeed a blip or whether it revealed that Twitter needed a dramatic shift in its marketing strategy. Equally, many came to wonder how a company like Twitter was planning to survive in the long term (having such strong competitors in its market segment, namely, Facebook). The question, then, that one (any interested observer/analyst on the Twitter case) must bear in mind is how should a company like Twitter face the future when thinking about a strategy that may support its sustained growth and shield itself from the eagerness of its competitors. The pertinent question/discussion should be around the following: being a company that has raised a total of $155 million from a consortium of investors in several rounds of funding – without having earned a single cent of profit – and valued at US$1 billion following its latest round of funding , should Twitter finally make a dramatic shift on its approach towards the business itself? In other words, should the company adopt a moneymaking business model? May it be a real business opportunity? Does, in reality, Twitter have the necessary potential to attain such model? Can Twitter ever earn profits? Or, contrarily, should Twitter be looked as a mere bright social network tool? What are the options under stake? What plans to follow? There is one certainty, for sure: Twitter’s entrepreneurs face a dilemma. Should they redirect their strengths towards building a real Twitter Brand (a much market approach with a strong money-making business paradigm), or should the model remain as it is for now (a Social Tool, without much preoccupation on making money out of it)? On the following pages, then, I will try to grasp all of these questions and foresee what strategy (based, and solely, on the information provided in the case study article) I reckon to be the best and most appropriate for Twitter to implement.TRANSCRIPT
T h e C a s e S t u d y o f Tw i t t e r – Wh a t f u t u r e ? Wh a t s t r a t e g i c p a t h t o f o l l ow ?
Module – Entrepreneurship Date: 28-‐Oct-‐2010
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“A product is a physical thing... the brand has not tangible, physical nor functional properties ... yet, it is as real as the product. If separate, abstract, ephemeral... it exists as a myth in the imagination of the consumer”
Kim
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................4.
Main Report............................................................................................................. 5.
Conclusion...............................................................................................................11.
Bibliography ...........................................................................................................12.
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Executive Summary
Twitter, described as being an easy-‐to-‐use, micro-‐blogging application, instant messenger or social presence notifier1 and, essentially, as being a broadcasting system that allows users to transmit short bursts of information to lots of strangers, as well as, to friends, has been in the news as one of the “hottest technology companies since Google and Facebook” (source: The Entrepreneurs at Twitter: Building a Brand, a Social Tool or a Tech Powerhouse?, found at https://campus.college.ch/download/assignment/2560). It also has been viewed as an influential factor in socio-‐political events, such as (and as mentioned on the given article) Senator Barack Obama’s United States (U.S.) presidential campaign, as well as, in political protests in Iran.
Despite its astonishing breakthrough into the Market (together with a strong crescent curve growth), by the end of 2009, Twitter had fallen to 24 million users worldwide (when, by mid-‐2009, the number was up to 29 million)2. These figures made analysts wonder and discuss whether this sudden drop in users within only 6 months was indeed a blip or whether it revealed that Twitter needed a dramatic shift in its marketing strategy. Equally, many came to wonder how a company like Twitter was planning to survive in the long term (having such strong competitors in its market segment, namely, Facebook).
The question, then, that one (any interested observer/analyst on the Twitter case) must bear in mind is how should a company like Twitter face the future when thinking about a strategy that may support its sustained growth and shield itself from the eagerness of its competitors. The pertinent question/discussion should be around the following: being a company that has raised a total of $155 million from a consortium of investors in several rounds of funding – without having earned a single cent of profit3 – and valued at US$1 billion following its latest round of funding4, should Twitter finally make a dramatic shift on its approach towards the business itself? In other words, should the company adopt a moneymaking business model? May it be a real business opportunity? Does, in reality, Twitter have the necessary potential to attain such model? Can Twitter ever earn profits? Or, contrarily, should Twitter be looked as a mere bright social network tool? What are the options under stake? What plans to follow? There is one certainty, for sure: Twitter’s entrepreneurs face a dilemma. Should they redirect their strengths towards building a real Twitter Brand (a much market approach with a strong money-‐making business paradigm), or should the model remain as it is for now (a Social Tool, without much preoccupation on making money out of it)?
On the following pages, then, I will try to grasp all of these questions and foresee what strategy (based, and solely, on the information provided in the case study article) I reckon to be the best and most appropriate for Twitter to implement.
1 http://dev.aol.com/article/2007/04/definitive-‐guide-‐to-‐twitter , accessed October 25, 2010. 2 http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/26/has.twitter.peaked/index.html?hpt=C1 , accessed October 25, 2010. 3 http://blog.pff.org/archives/2009/09/will_our_twitter_free_ride_end_or_will_targeted_ad.html , accessed October 25, 2010. 4 http://techcrunch.com/2009/09/16/twitter-‐closing-‐new-‐venture-‐round-‐with-‐1-‐billion-‐valuation/ , accessed October 25, 2010.
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Main Report
Is Twitter just a bright idea or a real business opportunity? To what extent does Twitter’s situation in 2010 reflect the past record of its founders?
Based on the information provided by the text, I firmly may affirm that Twitter may turn out to be a real business opportunity, even though, there are some troubling threats and setbacks:
a) Twitter’s growth had peaked in July 2009 at just over 29 million global users per month, falling steadily over the next five months to under 24 million users per month by the end of 2009.5
b) A recent research undertaken by a research firm, eMarketer, estimated Twitter’s abandonment rate to be 60 per cent after the first month.6
c) Eager competitors have already started to emerge, offering functionality that was unavailable from Twitter. Examples: Friendfeed allows users to send text messages, as well as, import information from their blogs, Flickr photos, and YouTube videos. Identi.ca, another micro-‐blogging service, has already made its source code freely available, allowing users to create their own micro-‐blogging service. Present.ly, which is designed specifically for businesses, allows companies to create their own micro-‐blogging network on its service and separate users into groups.7
d) In an attempt to win market share in this growing space, larger, more established companies have already rolled out free services as well (source: The Entrepreneurs at Twitter: Building a Brand, a Social Tool or a Tech Powerhouse?, found at https://campus.college.ch/download/assignment/2560).
e) In 2008, Facebook attempted to purchase Twitter for $500 million in Facebook stock, but Twitter’s management team rejected the offer. After these takeover talks were abandoned, Facebook introduced several Twitter-‐like changes to its service, including updating users’ home pages to allow them to provide real-‐time updates to friends. Facebook also gave more visibility to its pages for celebrities and other high-‐profile figures and lifted the ceiling on the maximum number of online fans they could have on the site (source: The Entrepreneurs at Twitter: Building a Brand, a Social Tool or a Tech Powerhouse?, found at https://campus.college.ch/download/assignment/2560).
f) And, in early February 2010, Google launched a Twitter competitor called “Google Buzz”, which, among other things, allowed users to post updates in real time by using their mobile phones.8
Despite the mentioned list of setbacks and potential real threats, why, then, am I so affirmative about Twitter’s potential on becoming a successful business opportunity and not just a bright idea (that has its days counted)? I say it solely based on the numbers, analysis and Exhibits shown on the case study article.
5 http://mashable.com/2010/01/11/twitter-‐growth-‐stats/ , accessed October 25, 2010. 6 http://mashable.com/2009/09/14/twitter-‐2009-‐stats/ , accessed October 25, 2010. 7 http://news.cnet.com/8301-‐17939_109-‐10120401-‐2.html , accessed October 25, 2010. 8 http://news.cnet.com/8301-‐30684_3-‐10449662-‐265.html, accessed October 25, 2010.
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If one carefully analyses Tech Crunch financials forecast9 on Twitter, one may clearly become optimistic about the company’s real growth potential into becoming a case of great business success. Based on internal documents, it is evaluated to generate US$4 million in revenues by the end of 2009, and, most crucially, US$62 million by the end of 2010 (nearly 7 times more, all within just one year period).
Thus, and solely based on the forecast of numbers, one may become quite optimistic about Twitter turning out to be a real profitable company!
Additionally, one must bear in mind that about 50% of Twitter’s user base comes from the United States10 (half of its “audience” is solely based on a single country/geographical region). And what does this information means to me? It clearly shows me that Twitter’s public target is still pretty much not availed. If such a promising profitable company has half of its potential revenues and profits coming from a single region on the globe, then, one must wonder how much would it generate if the promising business could reach other and further regions around the globe!... In fact, if one thinks about it, the true potential is enormous! I now understand the so affirmative account by Josh Bernoff, an analyst at Forrester Research:
“By the end of 2010, Twitter will either have a business model capable of generating $100 million in revenue or it will get bought. This is not a company whose ambition is to be small and profitable. They are looking at a world where one billion people are Twittering. You have to be able to make money from that.”11
This current (as we are near the end of 2010) overall potential wouldn’t be possible without the key visionary contribution of Twitter’s founders. Jack Dorsey, Christopher Isaac “Biz” Stone and, mainly, Evan Williams are the names behind Twitter’s emergence. I would say that their entrepreneurship qualities are the source for the current optimistic analysis on Twitter’s performance (again, despite some numbers showing a drop on its global users). Particularly, Evan Williams! If one takes a look on Williams’ past, one may conclude that his entrepreneur spirit made him to be where he is today. Having dropped from University, he preferred the mental challenge of coming up with great business ideas. Having moved from job to job, he always pursued entrepreneurial ideas on the side, even though, he never had any particular success on any of his early projects. But, he never quitted and moved right after to a more alluring idea emerged12. In other words, he was the kind of person who never quitted from pursing a better and more promising entrepreneurial idea. His past jobs, namely within the marketing, software and high-‐tech industries, made him the successful man is he now.
9 http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/15/twitters-‐financial-‐forecast-‐shows-‐first-‐revenue-‐in-‐q3-‐1-‐billion-‐users-‐ in-‐2013/ , accessed October 25, 2010. 10 http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/26/has.twitter.peaked/index.html?hpt=C1 , accessed October 25, 2010. 11 http://www.marketwatch.com/story/teens-‐arent-‐into-‐twitter-‐but-‐they-‐love-‐facebook-‐2010-‐02-‐09?reflink=MW_news_stmp , accessed October 25, 2010. 12 The Entrepreneurs at Twitter: Building a Brand, a Social Tool or a Tech Powerhouse?, found at https://campus.college.ch/download/assignment/2560
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But, the move I reckon to be the most significant shift on his entrepreneurial ascendency, and that would constitute the pre-‐announcement of Twitter’s breakthrough, was the launch of a podcasting firm named Odeo, Inc. Podcasting (another visionary project, where the main feature was the practice of recording and releasing digital media files via web). Despite this promising project, in early 2006, Odeo was facing poor prospects for its future. And, after a series of events, Williams (together with his fellows Stone and Dorsey) decided to acquire another parallel project named “Twttr”. The rebranding of the project was the next step: the “Twitter” project was born.
In one sentence: Williams’ (as well as, Stone’s and Dorsey’s) entrepreneurial capabilities and constant visionary eagerness for brighter ideas, determinately contributed for the birth and consequent success of Twitter.
What has been Twitter’s marketing approach to date? What should its marketing approach look like in the future? Can Twitter ever earn profits? If so, how can it capitalize on its popularity, and how should it put those plans into action?
Now, the success of Twitter (just like any other successful product/service) cannot (and did not) rely on the absence of an effective marketing strategy. Twitter’s accomplishments go hand-‐in-‐hand with a powerful marketing strategy approach and means to reach and attain the maximum attention/adhesion from its public target. One may identify 7 main stages regarding Twitter’s marketing approach, since its foundation:
1) During the first six months of Twitter’s existence, the company implemented a basic/poor marketing strategy approach – it relied on its original users to become what may be called as “personal evangelists” for the service.13
2) Twitter’s first real breakthrough happened following a bright marketing approach/action: by March 2007, in Austin, at South by Southwest festival, “participants were able to see their tweets flash across television screens in real time. The number of tweets tripled to 60,000 per day, as participants talked about the service and the bloggers in attendance wrote about it” (source: The Entrepreneurs at Twitter: Building a Brand, a Social Tool or a Tech Powerhouse?, found at https://campus.college.ch/download/assignment/2560).
3) Following and building on the success at South by Southwest, Twitter decided to add extra new features to its product, such as RSS feeds and integration with IM. This upgrading on the product meant that each feature that was added boosted the number of users and usage per user.14
4) Another marking point at Twitter’s successful marketing accomplishments was when its service began to be mentioned by numerous times in the media (a key marketing platform) – between 2007 and late 2009.15
13 The Entrepreneurs at Twitter: Building a Brand, a Social Tool or a Tech Powerhouse?, found at https://campus.college.ch/download/assignment/2560 14 http://www.140characters.com/2009/01/30/how-twitter-was-born/ , accessed October 25, 2010. 15 The Entrepreneurs at Twitter: Building a Brand, a Social Tool or a Tech Powerhouse?, found at https://campus.college.ch/download/assignment/2560
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5) A fifth stage may be identified as when Twitter had managed to reach a strong and powerful segment of its public target: other organizations/companies. These began to take note of Twitter’s potential to reach out to a more technologically savvy audience. The service was especially valuable to small companies, with limited budgets, looking to gain recognition in the marketplace. With Twitter, these small firms could reach out and provide updates to a growing list of followers. Within larger organizations, there was the potential for managers to update and co-‐ordinate groups of employees. However, managers were aware of the downside as well – employees could be spending unnecessary amounts of time on the service.
6) Another remarkable achievement/conquest (if not the most notorious one) may be identified as being when Twitter gained in usage during the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign and was cited as a key tool during the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India.
Also, during the Iranian presidential election, the popularity of Twitter as a tool used by protesters grew; participants relied on the service to co-‐ordinate their movements and to send message to the world outside Iran. Reliance on the service grew to such a point that Twitter delayed a 90-‐minute maintenance shutdown following a request from the U.S. State Department to keep the service available for the Iranian protesters.16
7) Finally, over the last 2 years, Twitter has managed to constantly be mentioned and advertised in the media. To name a few accomplishments, and during 2009, there were publicity stunts initiated by users, such as Ashton Kutcher’s challenge to CNN in a “Twitter popularity contest”17 and a Twitter name charity auction for “@drew,” which attracted a US$1 million bid from comedian Drew Carey if he reached one million followers by the end of 2009.18
As listed and described above, one may clearly understand that Twitter’s overall marketing strategy has been to try and be at the core of key notorious events (being political or social). Its aim is to be among the people (the masses) themselves. Explore the word-‐of-‐mouth factor and potentiate the enormous opportunity that modern media platforms (namely, television) may represent to help the company to promote its product/service. It’s clear to me that Twitter has no limitations regarding its public target. It wants to reach as much public as possible (being a mere citizen or other identities, such as, organizations, corporations and companies).
16 Andrew LaVallee, (2009-06-15). “Web Users in Iran Reach Overseas for Proxies,” The Wall Street Journal, http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/06/15/web-users-in-iran-reach-overseas-for-proxies/ , accessed October 25, 2010; and Mike Musgrove, (2009-06-17), “Twitter Is a Player In Iran's Drama,” The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/content/article/2009/06/16/AR2009061603391.html?hpid=topnews , accessed October 25, 2010. 17 http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/15/ashton.cnn.twitter.battle/index.html , accessed October 25, 2010. 18 http://mashable.com/2009/10/07/drew-carey-twitter-bid/, accessed October 25, 2010.
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Twitter’s Brand has become, then, a remarkable one and I sense (after having read and analyzed this case study) that its potential has not yet been explored to its limitations!
What marketing approach should Twitter, then, follow in the years ahead, knowing that its potential (both in terms of reaching further “audiences” and in turning into a money-‐making business) is reckoned to be an undoubtedly reality?
Well, first of all it certainly must try and maintain (and even improve) the level of exposure it currently has on the media. Virtually, anyone now knows what Twitter is, how and where can it be found (despite, as interpreted from the given article, one may speculate that it still has other markets/regions in the globe to exhibit itself). It’s already on the spot, so to speak. The lights are already on it! So, the first thing to do is to try and explore that already given fact. Being on the news and, constantly, being quoted and used as an innovation tool for modern communication (being a fast, intuitive and easy communication platform) must be the key message to pass on to its targeted audience).
In my account, Twitter has the true potential to not just be an extraordinary social tool (as it has been for the time being), but also a set of features that may make it a real “branding” opportunity for its entrepreneurs/founders. To be more precise, I would say that their entrepreneurs should move onto the next big step and reinvent its marketing strategy and look at Twitter as what I would call the “brand for modern communication”. In my view, this message should be the one around which the next ventures should be inspired by.
There is no turn around on The Modern Communications Era (some also call it the Network Society19). It’s a given fact that, in modern times, information and money flow more quickly than ever and international communication is commonplace. So, as Twitter is already in the midst of such phenomena, the only way I see for the product (the company itself) to survive and indeed try and make the most of the current tendencies is to improve its marketing strategy into a much “Branding” one. And, by that, I mean that Twitter needs to brand itself into a real product that may be used, but also bought by true consumers. Yes, it mustn’t drop out from being a remarkable social or political tool (take the extreme examples of Barack Obama’s U.S. presidential campaign or even the political protests in Iran). But, my perception is that this outstanding feature may well go hand-‐in-‐hand with a another way of seeing current times and needs the company may have to begin to raise profits and revenues – a money making business model, as well.
Twitter may well follow a new path on its trajectory: a two way of seeing the business itself. On one side, maintain and even reinforce its positive position as a social tool/product that may be used by virtually anyone (without having to pay anything for it). On the other side, a parallel a new track, where the company may also have the opportunity to make money out of the all idea.
19 Castells, Manuel (1996) The Rise of the Network Society. Cambridge: Blackwell.
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Now, to accomplish that (the profitable paradigm), Twitter surely must target other markets and segments of consumers (I refer to much complex audiences, such as large corporations and organizations). These are the consumer targets Twitter should look at in order to make money out of the business it runs (through pay per use, for example). And these groups of consumers are still pretty much unexplored by Twitter. Its marketing strategy must, then, focus on trying to penetrate into these potential new consumers.
A huge, but committed effort must be done on applying key marketing tools, such as, publicity stunts and strong advertisement on the media (television, radio, internet, etc). The new product, as I would call it, should be promoted as being a two vector service: a) directed to the common user/consumer (on a free access stream; and b) directed to a more specific consumer segment, where the usage of the service must be paid.
Twitter needs to capitalize on its popularity and put into action a set of plans! What plans are these? Surely, it must focus on getting the highest number possible of new potential users/consumers. And these will be the ones who will support the desired earning of profits! As mentioned on the given article, the potential targets are as follows:
A more technological savvy audience. These may be divided into two sub-‐segments: 1 – Small companies, with limited budgets, looking to gain recognition in the marketplace (even though it is not a new segment for Twitter to capture, as it already is one of twitter’s user segments, it should, nevertheless, be one target to develop and get the most out of it); 2 – Larger companies, with the potential for managers to update and co-‐ordinate groups of employees.
Commerce-‐based search businesses (e-‐commerce segment).
To quote Ellen Siminoff, a former Yahoo! Inc. executive who co-‐founded education the website Shmoop University Inc.: “Where you have audiences, you will make money.”20. And this is what Twitter must do. Building on its popularity, it should seek for further audiences, as well as, try to re-‐enforce the liaison with the existing users/consumers.
20 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aPAHFu.jBrhM
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Conclusion
What should entrepreneurs at Twitter do? Take its product and try to build a tremendous Brand out of it (the company was valued at US$1 billion following its latest round of funding21; it is estimated that its users may rise up to 1 billion by 2013; and it has an ambitious goal of earning over $1 billion in net income also by 2013)? Or, should they disregard it and maintain the current situation of being just a “mere” network tool for consumers to use it freely?
My answer is that Twitter should build a two-‐way track (in parallel coordinates), where twitter maybe used as a social-‐networking toll, but also as a way where certain consumers (much complex audiences, such as large corporations and organizations) must pay for it in order to use it.
On the contrary, if Twitter’s entrepreneurs do not seek this vision, many argue that the company may end up by being bought. As argued by Josh Bernoff (and I strongly agree with him), a company that has the potential of having a business model capable of generating $100 million in revenue and the fact that the number of people twittering may rise up to one billion, cannot simply be ignored! Bernoff’s words sound clear as water to me: “You have to be able to make money from that!”22.
21 http://techcrunch.com/2009/09/16/twitter-closing-new-venture-round-with-1-billion-valuation/ , accessed October 25, 2010. 22 http://www.marketwatch.com/story/teens-‐arent-‐into-‐twitter-‐but-‐they-‐love-‐facebook-‐2010-‐02-‐09?reflink=MW_news_stmp , accessed October 25, 2010.
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Bibliography Books
- Castells, Manuel, 1996. The Rise of the Network Society. Cambridge: Blackwell.
- KIM, Peter, 1990. A Perspective on Brands. Journal of Consumer Marketing. Vol 7, nº 3, p. 63-‐67.
Internet Resources
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- Drew Carey Raises Bid to $1 Million for @Drew on Twitter (Webpage) Available from: http://mashable.com/2009/10/07/drew-‐carey-‐twitter-‐bid/ (accessed Monday, 25. October 2010).
- 18 Million Twitter Users by End of 2009 (Webpage) Available from: http://mashable.com/2009/09/14/twitter-‐2009-‐stats/ (accessed Monday, 25. October 2010).
- Google's social side hopes to catch some Buzz (Webpage) Available from: http://news.cnet.com/8301-‐30684_3-‐10449662-‐265.html (accessed Monday, 25. October 2010).
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- How Twitter Was Born (Webpage) Available from: http://www.140characters.com/2009/01/30/how-‐twitter-‐was-‐born/ (accessed Monday, 25. October 2010).
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- The 12-‐Minute Definitive Guide to Twitter (Webpage) Available from: http://dev.aol.com/article/2007/04/definitive-‐guide-‐to-‐twitter (accessed Monday, 25. October 2010).
- The Entrepreneurs at Twitter: Building a Brand, a Social Tool or a Tech Powerhouse? (Webpage) Available from: https://campus.college.ch/download/assignment/2560 (accessed Monday, 25. October 2010).
- The Entrepreneurs at Twitter: Building a Brand, a Social Tool or a Tech Powerhouse? (Webpage) Available from: https://campus.college.ch/download/assignment/2560 (accessed Monday, 25. October 2010).
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- The Twitter Flatline: Why Doesn’t Twitter Grow? (Webpage) Available from: http://mashable.com/2010/01/11/twitter-‐growth-‐stats/ (accessed Monday, 25. October 2010).
- Twitter Closing New Venture Round At $1 Billion Valuation (Webpage)
Available from: http://techcrunch.com/2009/09/16/twitter-‐closing-‐new-‐venture-‐round-‐with-‐1-‐billion-‐valuation/ (accessed Monday, 25. October 2010).
- Twitter's Financial Forecast Shows First Revenue In Q3, 1 billion users in 2013 (Webpage) Available from: http://techcrunch.com/2009/07/15/twitters-‐financial-‐forecast-‐shows-‐first-‐revenue-‐in-‐q3-‐1-‐billion-‐users-‐in-‐2013/ (accessed Monday, 25. October 2010).
- Twitter Funding Round Is Said to Value Company at $1 Billion (Webpage) Available from: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aPAHFu.jBrhM (accessed Monday, 25. October 2010).
- U.S. teens are lukewarm on Twitter, love Facebook (Webpage) Available from: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/teens-‐arent-‐into-‐twitter-‐but-‐they-‐love-‐facebook-‐2010-‐02-‐09?reflink=MW_news_stmp (accessed Monday, 25. October 2010).
- Web Users in Iran Reach Overseas for Proxies (Webpage) Available from: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/06/15/web-‐users-‐in-‐iran-‐reach-‐overseas-‐for-‐proxies/ (accessed Monday, 25. October 2010).