If You Build It, They Will Stay?
I’ve been following Twitter a lot in the news lately - because quite frankly, I’m interested in why people are interested in Twitter. The micro-blogging application allows users to post real time, short entry updates at any time. As of March, there are now 3 million+ updates per day. Clearly people are busy tweeting. 
What’s even more interesting than why anyone would care to know you’re at the grocery store, is what the business model is behind twitter and Facebook apps that allow you to throw a sheep or battle other vampires. Gaining the traffic, building in viral looping schemes to invite friends to join and making your product sticky and relevant is the new key to the game. VC’s are willing to give a reprieve on immediately implementing a revenue model, in light of “utilities” that provide a good user experience and form connections not so much with users, but rather between them.
Meebo is a chat and IM application that is being integrated into many Facebook apps. What is the marketing benefit? Stickiness, engagement. The longer you stay, the more engaged you are. The more engaged, the harder it becomes to delete that app. The more popular apps continue to grow and build steam, they generate page views and visit length and can command the ad dollars.
This is why Twitter is so interesting. They are hesitant to alienate a wired crowd by forcing a revenue model which could stunt twitter’s astronomical growth. So which way will they go? Will they embed ads for Expedia each time you mention “Travel”? Will it become a hyper local reporting tool that augments or supplants news publications with on the ground, finger to the pulse reporters? Or will it be a bunch of chirping. For now, Jeff Bezos thinks it’s a bet worth taking… time will tell.