Web 2.0 Summit: Twitter CEO Zips Beak On Revenue Model

Vice President, Editorial Director InformationWeek Business Technology Network

October 21, 2009

At the Web 2.0 Summit this week, Evan Williams, CEO of the ever-popular Twitter, danced lithely around the question of his company's future revenue model -- a question that continues to dog the industry, but doesn't seem to faze Williams much at all. (Video clip included.)You can hear what Williams had to say in response Web 2.0 Chair John Battelle's multi-angled questioning in the video below.

Williams is certainly interested in making money -- in fact, he turned down half a billion dollars from Facebook in order to stay the course. But he wouldn't commit to any one of the many ideas that sit before him, including an advertising model.

One clue that Williams gave to future revenue plans: he called Twitter an "information network" rather than a "social network." He spent time talking about how companies are starting to drive business and expire inventory using Twitter, and it was clear he thought his company could extract some of that business.

Battelle also asked Williams about the use of all the data that Twitter has collected, and Williams said he sees this as a tremendously promising source of revenue in the future.

Fritz Nelson is an Executive Editor at InformationWeek and the Executive Producer of TechWebTV. Fritz writes about startups and established companies alike, but likes to exploit multiple forms of media into his writing.

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