Twitter – Did they Have a Choice?

When Twitter ($TWTR) announced last week that they were permanently suspending the President’s personal account I was surprised  – but I really don’t think they had an option. It’s very clear that Twitter’s growth has been heavily influenced by Trump and I expect the company will see user attrition as a result. Already, over the last few days, their stock has been falling. That said, there was no way out here. The simple fact is that Twitter makes money from advertisers and this cohort is about as risk averse as can be. Brands don’t want to be next to controversial rhetoric so they often will blacklist platforms or services that could be considered threatening. During my time at Jarden when I was overseeing our global advertising, we were constantly tweaking our buys to avoid anything that could be considered controversial.  If Twitter had done nothing, while their user base would likely have remained robust, their earnings would have fallen precipitously as advertisers abandoned the platform. This, also likely would have been a jolt to the stock – and ultimately their business model. 

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Facebook & Twitter – A Move to Subscription Makes Sense

A recent report claims $TWTR is considering a subscription model to augment a significant decline in advertising revenue. This would be among the first of the big social media companies to consider this approach and I believe could lead to a reckoning in the industry. $FB is currently facing a backlash among advertisers who claim the social media company isn’t doing enough to control controversial rhetoric on its platform and will inevitably see a decline in advertising revenue. A few years ago, the idea of paying to access online “news” content wasn’t a thing. Publishers were primarily in the business of selling ads in offline media and as they built their online presence they carried this business model over. As consumers got irritated with intrusive ads, it became clear they had to change their offering. Newspapers such as the NYTimes piloted new paywall programs to test consumers’ appetite for subscription based products. The result was mostly favorable, and as a result, many publishers today have pivoted their business models to favor subscription over advertising revenue especially as it becomes increasingly difficult to get ad dollars from brands in a world in which the big tech companies ($GOOG, $FB, etc) dwarf smaller publishers in traffic.

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