We rely on the Internet to do everything from communicating with our friends, families and colleagues to choosing a new cappucino maker. A good deal of the technology we provided for your webbing enjoyment is free, but supported software with guaranteed uptime generally does not exist without a revenue model (for long). Companies like Yahoo! and Google provide us with oodles of free tools without so much as having to say “Oh Toodles”. We know the juggernaut model. They sell ads and they roll in dough. So when people complain about Yahoo or Google tools being down, I am sympathetic because whether the notice it or not, those companies are earning money by having you as a user. But what about those that do not have a revenue model to speak of?

My current foray into the Social Media space/phenomenon has been infinitely satisfying primarily due to a seemingly endless array of questions that need answers and what seems to be a daily tasty new software snack tossing itself into the fray. One thing I have noticed is that when people find a new piece of social media ware, they enjoy sharing it with their online communities. It feels a lot like they are pioneers moving into a land and staking claim on it as if it were their own. Each new Social Conquistador exhibits newfound passion and instant evangelism along with a sense of ownership. You also hear them bring the thunder and lightning when the stuff is down. Look at Twitter for instance. You don’t have to take my word for it, just look at all of the complaints about how badly Twitter sucks.

But are they even entitled to act like that? Twitter does not have any revenue model that I can detect. Unless… maybe the revenue model is not transparent. Let’s look at the possibilities:

  • Charge subscription fee. That would be an epic fail. Want to see everyone run to Plurk?
  • Sell Ads. I would think this would be part of implementation on day 1. You gotta eat and your angels and VC backers will only feed you for so long.
  • Sell out to Google, Yahoo or Microsoft

I guess they’re hoping to be bought. It worked for Jaiku!