Case Name :      Privacy Issues and Monetizing Twitter

Authors :           Deborah Compeau, Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Shady Fraiha

Source :             Ivey Publishing

Case ID :            W11037

Discipline :        Entrepreneurship

Case Length :    17 pages

Solution Sample availability : YES

Plagiarism : NO (100% Original work)

It was early 2010, and the Twitter Trio, the founders of Twitter, were faced with a changing market situation and a pressure to make money. Twitter was a free service that had been operating without a viable business plan since 2006. In early 2010, Twitter was still not making enough money and it was time Twitter showed real return on investment. The trio had to decide on a business model that was competitive. There was a data mining project that could bring all the funds Twitter needed to stay in business, make profit and compete with others. However, the founders were concerned that this project might be perceived to intrude on users’ privacy, even in a company that was founded on the basis of sharing information publicly.