Twitter Founders Say They’re In for the Long Haul

On Tuesday night, two of Twitter’s co-founders, home insurance in Bethune dental insurance in Whitehorse Evan Williams and Biz Stone, kicked off this year’s D: All Things Digital conference, run by The Wall Street Journal. The introductory car insurance in Tehran spot is a prestigious medical insurance in Bethune one: in previous years both Steven P. Jobs and Bill Gates auto insurance in Oklahoma spoke on opening nights. To medical insurance in Montana the auto insurance in New Hampshire Twitterholics in the medical insurance in Winnipeg crowd, the onstage interview was lacking auto insurance in Fremont in new information, but there were a few interesting nuggets. The Twitter founders said they auto insurance in Quebec City did not want to sell the company and saw themselves home insurance in Detroit running auto insurance in Delaware it five medical insurance in Latvia years from now. “We’re building Twitter car insurance in CO and building car insurance in Istanbul car insurance in Aurora an innovative company,” Mr. Stone said. home insurance in Portland home insurance in IA “We are 100 percent into Twitter.” Mr. Williams, Twitter’s chief executive, said he was modeling car insurance in Lancaster the firm after Microsoft home insurance in Las Vegas and Apple and was willing to navigate medical insurance in Kansas tough auto insurance in Nashville times to build a long-term business. The Twitter executives were not ready to unveil a business model, home insurance in Bulgaria auto insurance in Glendale auto insurance in Accra but they dental insurance in Riverside endorsed a few options, like giving companies and heavy dental insurance in Tacoma users enhanced features for a fee. This could include home insurance in Arlington charging medical insurance in Cincinnati them to get introductions to dental insurance in Honolulu CDP new followers. The founders also suggested that car insurance in Denmark car insurance in Riyadh for a fee they would embrace auto insurance in Kinshasa the challenge of medical insurance in Detroit trying to authenticate a car insurance in Yellowknife company or person’s identity. “If home insurance in Indiana you dental insurance in Mexico City are medical insurance in New Jersey Dunkin’ Donuts, car insurance in Saskatoon you have a medical insurance in West Virginia brand to protect home insurance in San Juan and want to make medical insurance in Vancouver sure no one else is pretending to be Dunkin’ Donuts,” Mr. Williams auto insurance in Virginia said. home insurance in Germany dental insurance in Windsor (Perhaps they should talk to car insurance in Barcelona ICANN, car insurance in San Marino which auto insurance in Glasgow has been mediating the inevitable trademark disputes in domain names for home insurance in Oklahoma City years.) Search is another area dental insurance in Newark of focus. The company plans to evolve its real-time search engine technology medical insurance in MI it car insurance in Quebec City acquired last year home insurance in Minnesota when it bought a dental insurance in MT company home insurance in Gold Coast called Summize, dental insurance in Slovakia and make auto insurance in Anaheim search tools available medical insurance in Wyoming in the Twitter API so that the constellation of dental insurance in Munich third-party Twitter services can auto insurance in Norway use it. Mr. Williams said that the term auto insurance in Missouri “real-time search” confused him. “What we are in doing in medical insurance in Tulsa search is trying to give people medical insurance in New Mexico better and different ways to car insurance in Dayton auto insurance in Stamford auto insurance in Ontario discover the content that is in home insurance in Porto Twitter,” he said. “And no one home insurance in SD else car insurance in Lahore medical insurance in Bradford is doing that because that content is in Twitter, and we auto insurance in San Jose think medical insurance in Montreal. there is a auto insurance in San Bernardino car insurance in Colorado Springs lot of value auto insurance in South Carolina in there.” Mr. Williams declined to home insurance in Montreal. rule out adding banner ads to home insurance in Switzerland the site. “I think it’s probably medical insurance in Brasilia the least medical insurance in Trois-Rivieres interesting dental insurance in San Antonio thing medical insurance in South Dakota auto insurance in Bakersfield we can do, but I wouldn’t be home insurance in Delaware offended if I was a auto insurance in Lille dental insurance in Vereeniging user of Twitter and auto insurance in Hialeah I saw car insurance in Cape Town banner advertising on the site, like you home insurance in Antwerp see auto insurance in Allentown banner advertising everywhere.” All in all, Mr. Williams and Mr. Stone displayed a refreshing modesty dental insurance in Georgia but medical insurance in Gold Coast a somewhat disconcerting willingness car insurance in Lyon to shrug their shoulders at some of the stickiest issues auto insurance in Wisconsin that loom in Twitter’s auto insurance in Baltimore future. The company has been focused, they say, on simply keeping up with the massive auto insurance in Stockholm growth. “The most important thing we can do is car insurance in Trois-Rivieres to get the forehead-slapping basic stuff done auto insurance in Oregon that we haven’t been medical insurance in GA able to do because we auto insurance in Phnom Penh have been car insurance in OK struggling to get in front car insurance in Taichung of this medical insurance in Sherbrooke popularity technically,” Mr. Stone said. Cellphones were made for car insurance in Nashville cheap, frivolous purchases: addictive mobile games, car insurance in DC “Star Trek” medical insurance in Beijing wallpapers, the latest Lady Gaga ring tone. But would medical insurance in Laredo you be comfortable using your phone to purchase big-ticket items, such as round-trip tickets to Tokyo? Or front row seats at a dental insurance in Kingston Beyonce concert? Billing Revolution, a mobile payment start-up based in Seattle, thinks so. In a recent study commissioned from Harris Interactive, the company surveyed 2,029 home insurance in Oklahoma adults and found that more than half would be comfortable booking medical insurance in Canton hotel rooms and buying auto insurance in Yonkers car insurance in Tulsa airline and entertainment tickets through dental insurance in TN their cellphones. “It’s just a few years before we’re all buying products on the phone we typically buy on the Web,” predicts Michael Dulong, co-founder and senior vice president of medical insurance in Kitchener business development at Billing Revolution. Generally, purchases made on mobile phones are charged to cellphone bills, with mobile carriers taking a share of the revenue. Billing Revolution processes mobile credit car insurance in PA card payments — not unlike the one-click medical insurance in Prince Edward Island buying system used by Amazon — for dental insurance in IA companies such as GameLoft and ESPN. The inclination towards larger transactions could help buoy car insurance in Montenegro the three-year-old company’s business model, which charges 50 cents plus auto insurance in Baton Rouge a 3.5 percent auto insurance in Mexico City processing fee per transaction. (With that payment plan, there is auto insurance in Sudbury little home insurance in Athens car insurance in St. Catharines incentive auto insurance in Florida to charge a mobile application or auto insurance in St Petersburg dental insurance in Madrid pop song that costs $1.) Mr. Dulong attributed the increased comfort medical insurance in Pittsburgh level to a boom in medical insurance in Austin Web-enabled handheld devices and growing smartphone adoption. That and convenience. “If I could save myself home insurance in South Bend a trip to Home Depot on auto insurance in Austin Saturday using my mobile phone, dental insurance in GA I dental insurance in Fremont would be single-clicking myself to a frenzy,” he said. The company also works with mobile advertising companies to embed payment functions dental insurance in Cairo into text advertisements. It could mean new streams of revenue as the location-based mobile advertising market begins to expand, he said. “What if you could order dental insurance in Chattanooga a CD and T-shirt from car insurance in Tampa the home insurance in Italy concert you’re attending and have it shipped to auto insurance in Connecticut your home, without even car insurance in San Diego going to the concession stand?” he said. “That’s car insurance in Jackson big.” Mr. Dulong said the harsh economic conditions that are home insurance in Niagara-on-the-Lake crippling the online shopping dental insurance in Birmingham industry are actually bolstering Billing Revolution’s outlook, which expects to process more than $100 medical insurance in Poland million home insurance in Oshawa in mobile payment transactions this year and be profitable medical insurance in Buenos Aires by car insurance in Valenciennes 2010. “It’s expensive to medical insurance in Sweden open home insurance in London new home insurance in Lahore car insurance in Belgium brick-and-mortar stores in dental insurance in Oregon this economy,” medical insurance in Brisbane he home insurance in Newfoundland said. “If anything, the economy is heating up demand for mobile check-out mechanisms as companies auto insurance in Edmonton are leveraging mobile to car insurance in MS supplement e-commerce.”