Facebook (FB) Should Take Note of Twitter's Mobile Ad Progress...
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Besides being the best thing for ADHD patients to come along since Dance Dance Revolution, Twitter has been largely ignored by the investing community outside of Silicon Valley (at least, not nearly as much has been printed about Twitter as Facebook). Short, 140-character micro messages don't really justify full-on attention, right? Who's using the service anyway, and what are they getting out of it?
If you're Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg, your full attention should be on the site...because it's demonstrating how to make bucks from advertisements. Not desktop advertisements, either, but the ones placed on smartphones and tablets, an arena Facebook has largely voiced concern about.
Speaking at a conference hosted by The Economist Group out of San Francisco, Twitter founder Dick Costolo said the micro-blogging platform generated more ad revs from mobile and tablets than its website on many days in the latest quarter.
Costolo said Twitter has an "ad platform that already is suited to mobile..." despite launching on the web and just beginning to get into mobile territory.
With 140 million monthly active users generating about 400 million tweets (Twitter posts) per day, that's a huge audience to work with. In February, Twitter placed ads in users' timelines and than introduced a feature to allow advertisers to send promotional tweets to iPhone and Android users. Twitter has said those users compromise about 60 percent of its total user base.
Though the company is still private, data compiled by Reuters showed Twitter generated revs of $260 million in 2012 and projections of $540 million by 2014. Comparably, Facebook's revenue was $3.7 billion in 2011, or $4.35 per user, still better than the $1.85 generated by Twitter. Profit margin expectations for Twitter weren't immediately available.
Shares of Facebook are indicated for a higher open Thursday following the Nasdaq admitting a screw-up with its IPO.
Besides being the best thing for ADHD patients to come along since Dance Dance Revolution, Twitter has been largely ignored by the investing community outside of Silicon Valley (at least, not nearly as much has been printed about Twitter as Facebook). Short, 140-character micro messages don't really justify full-on attention, right? Who's using the service anyway, and what are they getting out of it?
If you're Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg, your full attention should be on the site...because it's demonstrating how to make bucks from advertisements. Not desktop advertisements, either, but the ones placed on smartphones and tablets, an arena Facebook has largely voiced concern about.
Speaking at a conference hosted by The Economist Group out of San Francisco, Twitter founder Dick Costolo said the micro-blogging platform generated more ad revs from mobile and tablets than its website on many days in the latest quarter.
Costolo said Twitter has an "ad platform that already is suited to mobile..." despite launching on the web and just beginning to get into mobile territory.
With 140 million monthly active users generating about 400 million tweets (Twitter posts) per day, that's a huge audience to work with. In February, Twitter placed ads in users' timelines and than introduced a feature to allow advertisers to send promotional tweets to iPhone and Android users. Twitter has said those users compromise about 60 percent of its total user base.
Though the company is still private, data compiled by Reuters showed Twitter generated revs of $260 million in 2012 and projections of $540 million by 2014. Comparably, Facebook's revenue was $3.7 billion in 2011, or $4.35 per user, still better than the $1.85 generated by Twitter. Profit margin expectations for Twitter weren't immediately available.
Shares of Facebook are indicated for a higher open Thursday following the Nasdaq admitting a screw-up with its IPO.
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