2011年10大脱靶商业预言

Twitter找到生财之道

    如果说2010年的主题是增长，2011年Twitter理应开始赚钱。科技界等待这个拥趸者众多（从美国脱口秀主持人奥普拉到美国总统奥巴马）的新秀企业能将数以亿计的Twitter消息转化为可持续的买卖。“2011年，他们必须证明自己确实是一桩生意，”2011年1月一位分析师告诉《洛杉矶时报》。

    2012年会吗？2010年底当迪克•科斯多罗取代共同创始人埃文斯•威廉姆斯出任Twitter首席执行官时，旁观者期待这位曾经的即兴喜剧演员能与广告主们建立更紧密地合作。在一定程度上，他是成功的。Twitter赢得了星巴克（Starbucks）、可口可乐（Coca-Cola）等超级品牌的广告。但问题是广告主们发现可选余地仍然很小。有些项目设计糟糕，看来几乎不可能达到Twitter用户中的目标受众。所有这些不禁让旁观者质疑Twitter 80亿美元的估值，以及该公司能否在IPO前真正成为一桩生意。

Twitter finds a business plan

    If 2010 was about growth, 2011 was the year Twitter was going to become a business. The tech world waited for the upstart with fans from Oprah to President Obama to turn those hundreds of millions of tweets into something sustainable. "2011 will be the year that they have to prove they are a business," an analyst told the Los Angeles Times in January.

    Make that 2012? When Dick Costolo replaced co-founder Evans Williams as CEO in late 2010, watchers expected the former improv comedian to work closely with advertisers. And to some extent he's been successful. Twitter has attracted business from mega-brands like Starbucks and Coca-Cola. But the problem is that advertisers are still offered limited options. Some programs seem poorly constructed and reaching a target audience among tweeters can be almost impossible. It's all made outsiders question Twitter's $8 billion valuation and whether it can get its act together to resemble a true business before it can hit the public market.