Bloomberg BusinessWeek Exclusive: Content-Search Deals Make Twitter Profitable

Content-Search Deals Make Twitter Profitable
Data-mining deals signed in October will bring in $25 million in exchange for rendering Twitter’s tweets searchable on Google and Microsoft Bing

By Spencer E. Ante

Twitter is ending 2009 on a high note. The microblogging site has reached profitability after inking $25 million of deals that make its content searchable by Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT), Bloomberg BusinessWeek has learned.

In October, Twitter said it had struck multiyear arrangements that make users’ short blog postings available on Google.com and on Bing, which is run by Microsoft. Those agreements carry sufficient value to help Twitter achieve a small profit for 2009, say two people familiar with the company’s finances, who asked to remain anonymous because Twitter’s books are not a matter of public record.

Like many social media startups, three-year-old Twitter focused early on adding subscribers rather than generating revenue. That’s left many analysts and investors wondering how and whether the company—often cited as a candidate for an initial public offering or acquisition—would make money. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone declined to comment on the company’s finances, but wrote in an e-mail that the company is proud of the work it accomplished in 2009. “We’re thrilled about the partnerships we’ve formed this year and we’re looking forward to opening Twitter even more in the future,” Stone wrote.

In exchange for making short blogs, known as tweets, searchable on Google, Twitter will receive about $15 million, the two people say, adding that the Microsoft partnership is worth about $10 million. “The deals were huge,” says one. “With two scoops of the pen, a lot of revenue came in.”

Read the rest of the story here.

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It’s Official: Twitter Hires Ex-Google Designer Douglas Bowman

Turns out the Web rumors were true for once. In a meeting last Friday afternoon in Twitter’s San Francisco office, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone told me that the company had hired ex-Google Visual Design Lead Douglas Bowman to be the company’s new creative director.

Bowman will replace Stone, who was acting as Twitter’s creative director. “The Twitter Web page looks pretty simple,” says Stone. “But from our perspective the design needs a lot of work.”

This is a great hire for Twitter, and more proof that Twitter has replaced Facebook as the tech industry’s hottest startup. Bowman probably could have joined Facebook if he wanted. But the talented designer, who used to work at Wired News, clearly sees a bigger opportunity at Twitter, not only from a design perspective but perhaps from a monetary one as well.

Bowman will be a much-needed presence as Twitter expands and tries to handle the enormous design challenge of helping Twitter users to manage the increasingly large amount of information flowing through the Twittersphere.

Bowman caused a bit of a stir when he announced his departure from Google in late March. In a candid post on the blog of his design consultancy stopdesign, Bowman said he left Google because of what he described as the company’s slavish obsession with data.

“I had a recent debate over whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and was asked to prove my case,” wrote Bowman. “I can’t operate in an environment like that. I’ve grown tired of debating such minuscule design decisions. There are more exciting design problems in this world to tackle.”

Not surprisingly, it appears as if Bowman digs Twitter. He seems to have joined the service on or around March in 2007. His first tweet appears to have been posted from, what else, South by SouthWest. “mellowing at the Driskill,” wrote Bowman. “my lord there’s a lot of people at sxsw this year.”

But Bowman is far from prolific or Scobel-like. He only has published 401 tweets over the last two years. Apparently, Bowman has to work for a living.

He is pretty popular, though. Bowman currently has 3,677 followers yet he himself only follows 93 people. Among the select crew of people that Bowman tracks are: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Biz Stone, Tina Fey, designer Derek Powazek, Google senior vice president Jeff Huber and blogger Anil Dash.