Twitter revealed this week two new tools, one benefiting consumers and the other benefiting brands. Project Lightning – still in the works – will collect and curate Tweets from live events. A button at the center of the Twitter app will direct users to events that are being talked about in real time. Twitter is also making its platform more shoppable, allowing (select as of now) users place image galleries in a single Tweet.
Twitter, which predates the mass adoption of smartphones, has been successful at adapting to the consumer shift and competition from mobile-first players. Despite complains about revenue, the company has managed to gather a solid number of users (300 million). As mentioned in an L2 video featuring NYU Professor Aswath Damodaran, Twitter’s problem is revenue, not user growth.
Twitter is one of few brands that have managed to achieve ubiquitous adoption, which should make a path to revenue possible. Expanding tweet views to users who don’t use the service for composing tweets and following other users (for example, those who use it for news updates) can pave the path for additional monetization.