We announce a Winner!
Posted on 26 January, 2009 at 17:14 PM
There are already 13 Comments
About the Show
Marc and David announce the winner of our Springleap T-Shirt competition and we find out that Twitter is valued at $250million.
Stay tuned till the end of the video where you will see a quick little out take ;)
Links mentioned in this post:
- Springleap.com
- Andy Sowards wins the T-shirt <--- Follow him on twitter!
- Twitter is valued at $250 million
- Obox is valued at $600 million
- Springleap on From the Couch
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User Comments
David Perel 26 Jan, 2009 17:40:56 PM
Well done Andy! Guys, you can follow the man on twitter: twitter.com/andysowards
@Chris - I sincerely hope they come up with a good plan. I just had to ask the question because up till now they have no form of revenue stream...
Chris M 26 Jan, 2009 17:43:04 PM
I think what you often find, is that these 'applications' are run by developers most of the time and they don't actually have someone involved who knows about online marketing and, more specifically, monetization.
We gota remember that monetization and so forth is a very new skill set in terms of, dare I say it, web 2.0. That said, should someone who has experience in this regard, come along and really sink time and teeth into it, it'll rock out!
Once
David Perel 26 Jan, 2009 18:23:56 PM
@Chris - Right on Chris. I believe that they have hired someone who specializes in coming up with a money making plan and then executes it. Hopefully he makes the difference.
I agree fully about this being the early stages. So many people are saying that Social Media and the money making explosion is over. I completely disagree, this is the calm before the storm!!
Tyler Reed 26 Jan, 2009 18:35:45 PM
I think the guys behind the scenes at Twitter are smart and when they raised their first round, I guarantee that they justified where and how they would make money. However, the product has evolved at phenomenal rate and we saw this mostly throughout last year with their scaling issues.
Venture Capitalist don't just through money into an idea, they are looking for return. The problem with Twitter is not that they can't monetize but rather the unique ways in which they are attempting to monetize it. They could start serving banner ads tomorrow and make a killing. However, they are trying to come up with ways of making money out of big brands and not their individual users who contribute to and grow their product, which I feel is the best way.
Follow @Biz on Twitter.
David Perel 26 Jan, 2009 18:43:25 PM
@Tyler - You have a really good point regarding their method to monetize. Too many Social Sites jam pack their site with ads which effectively 'sell the user'. I for one have always worried about a business model which revolves almost entirely around advertising (just look at magazines and newspapers at the moment).
So kudos to Twitter. I suppose that their business model requires initial investment but when it gets cracking it will be turning over numbers which will more than justify its perceived value. I hope this is the case.
BTW, welcome to the comments section Tyler. When are you going to be on From the Couch?
Wezz 26 Jan, 2009 19:12:07 PM
Yeah I agree with Marc about TwitPic. At first I had no idea how to post a pic to it - they've fixed that up recently and a few other issues I don't dig. It definitely has the potential to an an awesome app though.
Marc Perel 26 Jan, 2009 19:17:07 PM
@Wezz - I know, so much potential dude. If they just fix up the nav and some other stuff it'll be a killer.
Andy Sowards 26 Jan, 2009 21:23:45 PM
Thanks for the prize guys! Much appreciated! :)
Thanks to everyone involved! Keep the show rocking ;)
Tyler Reed 26 Jan, 2009 21:51:50 PM
@David I'll be down in the mother city next month, I'll be sure to let you know when. Keep the magic coming.
David Perel 26 Jan, 2009 23:28:41 PM
@Andy - It is a pleasure dude. I suppose it is karma paying you back (in a postive way) for all the retweets that you have given us!
@Tyler - Awesome dude. Let us know. We will hook up the session.
Philip Rawson 27 Jan, 2009 00:17:46 AM
Nice job, Andy! It's probably a good thing I didn't win, because I would get some weird looks from people if I wore that in public. :P
As for Twitter, I can only hope that the $250 million price tag will help them speed up the monetization process they have cooking up.
Talya Goldberg 27 Jan, 2009 22:47:07 PM
I really love how the videos on From-The-Couch always start such great a great comment mini-forum.
This monetization argument is really great and its too late at night and I'm feeling much to lazy to retype this entire blog post which I wrote after the last Heavy Chef session in Cape Town on the matter.. talyagoldberg.wordpress.com/2008/12/11/heavy-chef-session-part-i/ Know Marc has read it, but wonder what you all think?
I completely agree with Tyler Reed, and I think its really awesome that they are not (at the moment) going the convential route of sticking banner ads in every nook and cranny, because thats so boring, so outdated and to be honest how many people actually read or see those anymore.. let alone gain value from the service? Just wish they would hurry up and put this monetization into action already because the longer it takes and the faster twitter grows its only going to lead to a lot more unfortunate Fail Whale sightings!
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Chris M 26 Jan, 2009 17:23:55 PM
Well done Andy :)
I reckon making the $250mil back wouldn't be that hard for an experienced company. It's one of the most fantastic systems, which talks directly to the masses, targetting advertising campaigns would be a dream.
Let's see what happens!