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By: Jeremiah Mink, Ted Dickinson, Zack Ross, Nick Lozano & Anna Wang

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What is Twitter?

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Once You’ve Set Up an Account…

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<ul><li>“ Twitter is a real-time information network powered by people all around the world that lets you share and discover what’s happening now . Twitter asks “what’s happening” and makes the answer spread across the globe to millions , immediately.” </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Technology </li></ul><ul><li>Device Integration </li></ul><ul><li>“… create meaningful and varied experiences so that Twitter content could be created and consumed regardless of the mode or medium…Users should be able to experience Twitter in any form that works for them.” </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Information Network </li></ul><ul><li>Change the way people communicate </li></ul><ul><li>“ Our goal is to foster the open exchange of information, as we believe this leads to positive things happening in the world.” </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Democracy of ideas </li></ul><ul><li>Bottom-Up Approach </li></ul><ul><li>Environment which spawns productivity and happiness </li></ul>

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Opportunities and Threats: Opportunities : Positive external trends that can help improve Twitter’s performance. Threats : Negative external trends that may hinder Twitter.

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<ul><li>Social networking and micro-blogging has become increasingly popular amongst all demographics. </li></ul><ul><li>Information is critical to our daily lives. </li></ul><ul><li>How we receive and transmit information now comes with a plethora of dimensions and channels. </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Twitter is part of a complex and dynamic environment with rapid change. </li></ul><ul><li>Many components must be monitored in the environment in which twitter exists. </li></ul><ul><li>Twitter must use the environment as a source of information, while gathering data from its internal composition. </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Micro-blogging and social networking has scarce and necessary resources: People and their information. </li></ul><ul><li>Hostile environment as many competitors offer near-identical services. </li></ul><ul><li>Twitter must expand services to thrive and survive. </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Specific environment: Customers, competitors, suppliers, and industry variables. </li></ul><ul><li>Customers-Subscribers who Tweet. </li></ul><ul><li>Competitors-Facebook, Identi.ca, Jaiku, Notepub, and Qaiku, </li></ul><ul><li>Suppliers- Financial investors and shareholders who keep the firm afloat. </li></ul><ul><li>Industry- Very attractive with high profit potential. </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Current rivalry amongst existing firms: </li></ul><ul><li>Equally balanced competition. </li></ul><ul><li>Fast growing industry. </li></ul><ul><li>Low fixed or storage costs. </li></ul><ul><li>Differentiation: Unique industry </li></ul><ul><li>Currently not over-capacitated. </li></ul><ul><li>High exit barrier: People always willing to socialize. </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Potential Entrants: Easy industry to break into (low barrier of entry). </li></ul><ul><li>Bargaining power of competitors: Since Twitter does not currently advertise, It can be subdued by competitors who do e.g. Facebook. </li></ul><ul><li>Substitute Products: Cell phone applications, various blogging sites, chat rooms, smaller full-scale social networking sites. </li></ul>

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<ul><li>General Environment: These include economical, demographic, socio-cultural, political-legal, and technological sectors. </li></ul><ul><li>Economic- Free to subscribe to Twitter. </li></ul><ul><li>Demographic- Encompass all groups; found favor with older-adults. </li></ul><ul><li>Socio-cultural- Our culture is changing into a networking, informational, and opinionated one. </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Political-Legal: Twitter uses personal identifiable information and shares it with 3 rd parties. A new beta-version of its verified accounts allows for notable individuals not to be misrepresented. All information needs to be monitored for abuse. </li></ul><ul><li>Technological: Ever changing-technology poses one of the largest threats to Twitter. </li></ul>

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<ul><li>As online micro-blogging continues to build momentum, Twitter is continuing to gain market share based off number of hits to its website as well as new memberships. </li></ul><ul><li>This trend will continue with the increase as more users sign up for Twitter services. </li></ul>This graph to the right represents weekly market share of Twitter vs Digg by online marketing company Hitwise.

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<ul><li>Twitter has a wide market group that started with ages 18-25 but is beginning to move towards the 25-35 age group due to Twitter’s information/news capabilities. </li></ul><ul><li>Based on its upward market share there is evidence to support the appeal of Twitters services. </li></ul><ul><li>The fact that Twitter is the only site that offers the availability to follow celebrities, sports stars, friends and colleagues plays a huge role in how Twitter differentiates it service relative to its competitors. </li></ul><ul><li>It is also becoming news/information oriented which moves away from typical social networking sites and offers Twitter a niche market. </li></ul>

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This chart shows the amount of posts per day the first quarter of 2009. Considering its exponential growth it will be a lot more substantial today. 5 million posts per day!!!

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<ul><li>As most .com companies, Twitter shares certain culture characteristics which are innovation, young employees, growth oriented and located in San Francisco, California. </li></ul><ul><li>Location is extremely important due to access to qualified and trained personal from local university’s and a diverse group of young professionals. </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Twitter is a relatively young company and as a result makes it very flexible. </li></ul><ul><ul><li>It has the ability to learn very quickly what aspects of Twitter are popular and what are not. This allows it to be very synergistic and offensive, combining many different aspects of social networking and being a first mover in many of Twitters endeavors. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>It is also very flexible with new technologies as well. From 2007 to 2008 it was handled by a Ruby Persistent queue server called Starling. Since 2009, Twitter switched its software gradually written in Scala. Scala allows other web services and applications to integrate with Twitter, thus allowing </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>more utility for Twitter users. </li></ul></ul>

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<ul><li>Twitter is young, innovative, and growing in popularity exponentially (average growth rate of over 1000%), with a remarkably simple user interface. </li></ul><ul><li>It has a young, diverse workgroup which fosters contemporary and cutting-edge technology and ideas. </li></ul><ul><li>Its 140 character limit creates a niche social networking site that encourages speed of relative information with easy access. </li></ul><ul><li>Can be accessed through multiple sources including cell phones, text messages, computers terminals, blogging software, email and status updates (facebook). </li></ul><ul><li>Financial resources – venture capitalists, going public </li></ul><ul><li>Its number of current users grossly outnumbers its competitors which is substantial in maintaining its popularity. </li></ul><ul><li>Estimated (1billion users by 2013). </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Twitter has inherent security risks associated with its content in that nothing is verified. Much of the information can be false which brings a “buyer beware” attitude. e.g. Obama election. </li></ul><ul><li>Time that you have for your message to be seen is mere seconds and is exacerbated by the amount of users you follow. </li></ul><ul><li>Building a large following takes time, patience, and hard work. </li></ul><ul><li>The 140 characters can also limit your information, particularly with sophisticated data or instruction. </li></ul><ul><li>Many tweets can be considered banal, which makes it difficult to filter relevant information. </li></ul><ul><li>Twitter has been shown to show a low retention rate of 40%. </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Twitter highly differentiates its service compared to its competitors by allowing the business world to harness Twitter as a marketing, finance, recruitment, campaigning, education, legal proceedings, public relations, fund raising, surveys and advertising tool. </li></ul><ul><li>Going public in the future can bring capital opportunities to branch off into other countries increasing market share. </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Privacy and security – Twitter collects personally identifiable information about its users and shares it with third parties. </li></ul><ul><li>As a result of Twitter being new and in the technology/internet industry there is a high likelihood of new entrants. </li></ul><ul><li>Regulation from the government. As a result of threats to government and regular citizens the government has put a close eye on the tweets content. </li></ul><ul><li>The spur of growth has made it difficult for Twitter to keep up resulting in downtime and loss of </li></ul><ul><li>specific services. </li></ul>

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<ul><li>In our opinion Twitter is in the best category, Strength/Opportunity (SO). </li></ul><ul><li>Twitter has many strengths and has a more niche business model compared to its competitors. Its opportunities are unlimited considering the amount of internet users in America alone plus other markets in different countries. </li></ul><ul><li>As a result of its many business applications it has a myriad of revenue opportunities that face book and MySpace lack. </li></ul>

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<ul><li>What does Twitter need to change? </li></ul><ul><li>What strategies should they be looking to implement in the future? </li></ul><ul><li>What strategies are not working and need to be reevaluated?? </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Only allows 140 Characters </li></ul><ul><li>Real time information </li></ul><ul><li>Upload links </li></ul><ul><li>Updating status </li></ul><ul><li>User friendly </li></ul><ul><li>Introducing Twitter globally </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Connecting people around the global </li></ul><ul><li>Recruiting tool for big or small companies </li></ul><ul><li>Share similar hobbies </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Its cheap </li></ul><ul><li>Consumers are able to communicate with companies </li></ul><ul><li>Posting upcoming events or products </li></ul><ul><li>Posting information on Twitter when usage is high </li></ul><ul><li>Job posting </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Majority of celebrates have a Twitter account </li></ul><ul><li>Fans can follow there favorite celebrates </li></ul><ul><li>Fans don’t have to buy magazines to follow the latest news </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Marketing to adolescent </li></ul><ul><li>Video Chat </li></ul><ul><li>Developing sites to peoples interest </li></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Job Seekers </li></ul></ul></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Latest fashion trends </li></ul></ul></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Sports </li></ul></ul></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Music </li></ul></ul></ul></ul></ul>

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<ul><li>Financial </li></ul><ul><li>Possibilities </li></ul><ul><li>& </li></ul><ul><li>Evaluation </li></ul>

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<ul><li>Twitter along with the other major social networking sites are talking heavily about IPO’s </li></ul><ul><li>Would not need much in the way of equity </li></ul><ul><li>Not currently publicly traded </li></ul>

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<ul><li>The value can only be speculated at this point </li></ul><ul><li>Considered a web 2.0 company </li></ul><ul><li>Recent investment by Google founder Jeff Bezos and Spark Capital </li></ul><ul><li>Company’s speculated net-worth is $100 million with investment </li></ul>

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<ul><li>This could be a second tech bubble bursting </li></ul><ul><li>Millions could be lost or gained </li></ul>

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<ul><li>User Centered Organization </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Key crowd is easily identified </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Ease of use is the main focus </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Its all about WHO uses it. </li></ul></ul>

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<ul><li>Efficiency is the main goal </li></ul><ul><ul><li>With the use of it current limited resources it needs to beat out more established companies </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>If financial resources are obtained then effectiveness would become the main goal </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Productivity is important, but not the main goal </li></ul></ul>

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<ul><li>One benchmark that would suit Twitter well is AOL Instant Messenger </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Integration with cell phones </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Limited number of characters </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>The huge number of people who use AIM </li></ul></ul>

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<ul><li>If current rate of growth is sustainable then Twitter has all the right strategies </li></ul><ul><li>If the 2.0 Tech Bubble bursts then Twitter would go down in flames like the original companies in the first tech bubble </li></ul><ul><li>Twitter needs to find a way to make sure they can stay in business if the bubble does burst. </li></ul><ul><li>Questions? </li></ul>