Why Twitter Cannot Hurt Facebook, Much!

Posted by Abbas ||

March 29, 2009 ||

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I’ve read more writings on why and how Twitter will overtake Facebook than why Twitter won’t!

Though I am not a prolific Facebook user or a big Facebook fan I don’t really think Twitter can beat Facebook at what it’s doing, here is why… (follow @tnerd on Twitter)

To understand why Twitter cannot beat Facebook, one has to understand the target audience of Facebook and what Facebook offers that Twitter (does not) cannot.

Facebook is a whole package which offers Photo/Video sharing, Scraps, Pokes, Gifts, etc.. to keep in touch with friends, offers a decent level of privacy over your content and a lot of other tidbits of information on the your Facebook home page which encourages exchange of information with your contacts and keeps the communication going.

On the other hand Twitter does not offer any of these. Its “What are you doing?” messages could be a lot prettier than Facebook’s “What’s on your mind?” snippets but that ends there.

The way I look at it Facebook is a social networking platform where as Twitter is more of a Social Media tool than a Social Network platform.

Being different and offering varied services will work for Twitter and Facebook, it gives them enough room to grow in their respective targeted audience.

To understand which service will have an edge over the other in the long run its important to know what is Internet made of. Let’s look at what most of the people on the internet are looking for.

Alexa top 100 sites give a good picture of what people on the internet are most interested in and what services appeal to them the most.

I picked up the top 100 from Alexa and categorized just over 75% of the sites into different categories and rest 25% fall into News and Informational sites.

43% of the sites fall into the Top 3 categories, namely, Audio/Video Share, Porn and Portals. Social Networking falls into 5th place with 11% share.

Looking at the nature of the top 3 categories majority of the users are most likely to pick Facebook over Twitter as Facebook offers much more in terms of socializing and virtual communication interface which is more personalized.

Most people in top three categories are looking for much more than just reading someones updates, they are looking forward to make new contacts, not just contacts but also know the person on a higher level and not limit their conversation to “What are you doing” or “What’s on your mind”.

Bottom line.. in the current scenario Tech neutral users are most likely to choose Facebook as their mode of communication and social networking and users who are more tech savvy will go for Twitter that does not mean they will stop using Facebook. There will always be users who use both.

And don’t forget majority of the internet is made of Tech neutral users.

What do you think?

Tags: Facebook, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter, Twitter Killing Facebook

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