Currently, there are a lot of rumours in the market about who is going to buy twitter. names such as Salesforce, Alphabet and Disney are the most frequently mentioned.

Personally I am a massive fan of twitter as I find it a quick and easy source of articles and knowledge – it is probably the social site that I use the most.

While twitter has a great reach, the problem is that a viable commercial model has never been established. And while readership volume is seen as important, in the end it is only valuable if you can monetise the user base.

To me it is a valuable lesson in the development of any start-up or even creating the digital channel of an incumbent. People often fall in love with the concept or the technology and don’t spend enough time really understanding the commercial model – what customers are willing to pay for, how much are they willing to pay or is it monetisable through some other medium such as subscription or advertising.

Sounds simple doesn’t it?

But there has been an enormous amount of money spent without really spending the thinking and analysis time up front to answer the ultimate question.