14 DAY TRIAL // Todd Chaffee, board member of a company that invested in Twitter, was quoted this weekend as saying that one of the ways Twitter would monetize its business was to offer product advice and purchasing options. Twitter CEO Evan Williams, though, stepped up to deny that this was an official statement from the company, arguing it reflected only the personal opinions of the board member and weren't a definite plan of the company.
“To be clear: Todd is a Twitter investor and a very smart and helpful guy,” Evan Williams said in a comment on the original story in the Silicon Alley Weekly. “However, he is not actually on Twitter's board and, in this article, he's brainstorming on his own. These are not in the least bit concrete plans of the company.”
Previously, Todd Chaffee had stated that Twitter planned to generate revenue partially by enabling companies to automatically reply to Twitter users pondering a purchase and sending them coupons or links to online stores.
“Commerce-based search businesses monetize extremely well, and if someone says, ‘What treadmill should I buy?’ you as the treadmill company want to be there. As people use Twitter to get trusted recommendations from friends and followers on what to buy, e-commerce navigation and payments will certainly play a role in Twitter monetization,” Chaffee told the New York Times.
The move would have been a tricky one for the company, as co-founder Biz Stone said that there were no plans to display ads in the pages and that the company was looking for other ways to monetize its business. While ads have not been outright dismissed, Stone believes that a much better way to generate revenue by “facilitating connections between businesses and individuals in meaningful and relevant ways is compelling.”