LONDON – Whether you love it, loathe it, or just don’t get it, Twitter is the hottest thing in digital right now.
Revolution columnist Hashem Bajwa met Biz Stone in his Silicon Valley loft office to talk about how people and brands are using Twitter and what its future might be. – Revolution columnist Hashem Bajwa went to interview Biz Stone at Twitter’s San Francisco office. Twitter’s phenomenal popularity shows no sign of slowing. Sure, the microblog’s credibility took a knock when Jonathan Ross name-checked it on his Friday-night chat show. Yes, the early adopters have moved on to pastures new. And, undeniably, Twitter has become the latest buzzword for marketers looking to impress in the boardroom. But despite all this, the service continues to go from strength to strength. So much so that internet giants Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft have all reportedly been prepared to swoop on the fledgling business – even though it does not have a commercial model and is not currently making any money. Twitter’s co-founders are an elusive trio, but the most voluble, Biz Stone, a 35 year-old serial entrepreneur, has ambitious plans to transform the microblog into a successful, ubiquitous and highly profitable company. Over the past few months, Revolution has pointed out Twitter’s failings and celebrated its strengths in equal measure. But to find out once and for all what the future holds for the site, we asked Revolution columnist, Droga5 digital strategy director and Silicon Valley stalwart Hashem Bajwa to get the inside story from the man himself. This is Stone’s most in-depth UK interview. “Being an entrepreneur is a lot like being an artist: authenticity, creativity, hard work and mistakes are essential,” says Stone. At a time when Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have seemingly gone into hibernation during an uncertain economic climate with funding drying up, Twitter is defying expectations with a 1,382 per cent growth in user numbers in February, along with $35 million (&pound23m) in new venture capital this year.
Twitter’s hype far exceeds the 140-character limit of a tweet, and the media are certainly infatuated with it. The microblog has more than 17 million users, and according to comScore looks set to exceed even this mass adoption. I met Stone in his San Francisco loft office to talk about how people and brands are using Twitter and what its future might be.