Word has it that Twitter is close to launching its own photo-sharing service and plans other acquisitions that will help a compelling, popular medium advance in its plans to create a viable, cash-generative business.
It has been the lack of a viable business platform that has bedevilled Twitter despite its success.
Twitter has amassed more than 200m users but advertising is still elusive, and clearly not helped by the myriad of various Twitter clients that are only serving to confuse the picture for the five-year-old company.
The acquisition of TweetDeck for US$40m was clearly the first step in what can be considered a fight-back by a social media platform that needs to monetise faster.
According to TechCrunch, Twitter plans to launch a photo sharing service that lends itself perfectly to the medium as a speedy way of distributing content. Such a service would compete with existing services by players like Twitpics and Yfrogs.
It could also help Twitter see off competition in the form of the Instagram app, which is gaining in popularity every day.
The company is also planning to buy AdGrok, a firm that creates contextual keywords on Google Adwords – another clear signal that Twitter means business.
