When college students tweet, they’re usually quick and short― encompassing the many characteristics that they may encounter throughout the day. Twitter, which was created in 2006, has became a major player in social media for many and has recently gained attention.
On Nov. 7, Twitter shocked the New York Stock Exchange with it’s impressive debut into the market. Originally, Twitter priced it’s IPO at $26, however it opened at the stock exchange at $45.10, shot up to $50.99, and eventually closed at $42.90― up 73 percent.
Meanwhile, both Facebook, Linkedin and other social media resources decreased their market value. As a result of Facebook’s previous IPO failures, Twitter has placed a 180-day lockout on selling the shares. This will result in saving investors from an influx of stock, and allows Twitter to focus on turning the company into a profit, since they are officially worth over $30 billion dollar market value.
Facebook has undoubtedly become the top social media site world-wide. It appeals to various audiences, allowing people to connect with old and new friends and has achieved making a large profit through the use of advertisement.
Andy Boyan, communications studies professor and social media enthusiast, comments on Twitter’s current popularity.
“Twitter’s real value is coming into TV watchers,” Boyan said. “People more and more are watching TV, and they have twitter on while doing so. This is super common. People are checking jokes from comedians, retweeting things that are funny or interesting, and seeing what their friends like. It’s a companion tweet.”
Facebook and other social media companies have given hope to Twitter, since they have consistently been making a profit for years. Twitter is hoping to have similar success.
“They have a couple of revenue streams, and the question is what can they sell,” Boyan said. “They can sell ads, price probably depending on audience reach, but they won’t be able to make as much as Facebook profits since they don’t have the number of people. But they own the data, what people are tweeting about, all the trending topics and other aspects. It’s proprietary data; they can sell that. I’m not sure how they will do it, but the company will definitely make a profit off that.”
However, it is unlikely that Twitter will be able to surpass Facebook’s massive influence in social media. Boyan believes that email and Facebook are becoming a normality for many people worldwide, where Twitter is more hyper specific relating to a particular audience.
While the company and many investors will patiently await Twitter’s continued success, I say: Tweet on Albion.
Photo by Jillian Putnam
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