Twitter to Launch Business Tools by Year-End

I wasn’t too surprised to hear that Twitter was going to go this route, I kind of figured that they would take this path to monetize their service as opposed to serving ads.

I don’t have a clue what these tools are going to look like, or what additional functionality they are going to bring to the table, I bet the guys at Twitter don’t even have all of that nailed down just yet either, but I will say this, whatever the tools are and whatever they cost, there are a lot of companies out there that will pay to have them.

In my opinion Twitter has already proven it’s value to businesses, if you don’t believe me just ask some of the businesses that were early adopters of the service and have built up their own following over time.  Twitter is the hottest thing going, and I don’t see it slowing down anytime sooon.  I sincerly hope that this plan to make Twitter profitable works out for Twitter, I know that it has to get old answering the question, “so how are you guys going to make money from all of this?”

NEW YORK — Micro-blogging site Twitter plans to introduce tools and services by year-end to help businesses serve their customers, and may charge fees for such services, co-founder Biz Stone said on Monday.

“We’re looking at who’s using Twitter and for what,” Stone told the Reuters Global Technology Summit in New York via videolink from San Francisco. “Are there any commercial usages that are making a lot of sense?”

Twitter, a two-year-old, venture capital-backed company that lets people send 140-character messages, or Tweets, has enjoyed explosive growth in recent months. Visitors to Twitter jumped 83 percent in April from the previous month, to reach 17 million, according to comScore data.

Twitter is searching for ways to make money from its popularity. Stone said “phase one” of that effort was spent collecting intelligence on how people use the service.

The second phase will see Twitter launching tools and services on top of free micro-blogging, aimed at companies that wish to use Twitter to message customers.

It will be “simple stuff” such as lightweight analytics, Stone said. He reiterated the company’s commitment to keeping the service free for everyone but added:

“If there is a way we can go above and beyond, and they (companies) can improve bottom line by offering services we can offer for a fee, (we) will do that.”

Twitter to Launch Business Tools by Year-End | Epicenter | Wired.com