Businesses to be charged for using Twitter?

published 10 February 2009

Twitter is considering charging companies a fee to use its microblogging network to connect with customers, according to its co-founder.

Twitter chief executive Biz Stone told Marketing magazine that there was an increasing number of businesses using the service to communicate with consumers, and that introducing a fee for corporate use could be a way to make money. He didn't mention how much Twitter could charge.

He was quoted as saying: "We are noticing more companies using Twitter and individuals following them. We can make this experience even more valuable and change for commercial accounts."

According to the article, Bob Pearson of Dell said that its first instinct would be to move elsewhere if the use of Twitter became complicated and costly.

There would also be a lot of questions to answer, such as what constituted a corporate account as opposed to a user account.

Twitter would definitely need to tighten up security, with some well-publicised security problems last month showing how easy it can be to break into an account.

IT PRO recently published a beginner's guide to Twitter for businesses looking to use the platform.