Introduction
Twitter’s main asset is its software platform, which unites more than 313 million monthly active users (Sweney, 2020). It depends on the technical staff who will support the platform, the sales department to promote it, and the support staff who will provide support. Some of Twitter’s more direct activities include its web development and maintenance, which have proven very effective. Its other activity is application development, which allows users to access the service through their mobile devices (Burgess & Baym, 2022). Twitter’s intangible assets are cash and short-term financial investments.
Discussion
Twitter VRIO analysis shows that the Twitter distribution network is a valuable resource. It also ensures that the promotion activity will lead to sales as the products are readily available. Twitter’s distribution network is a rare resource since competitors will need a lot of investment and time to develop a better distribution network than Twitter. The Twitter distribution network is also costly to simulate competition. This has been developed over the years gradually by Twitter (Burgess & Baym, 2022). Thus, these resources turn out to be a source of sustainable competitive advantage for Twitter.
Twitter VRIO’s analysis shows that Twitter’s financial resources are precious because they help invest in emerging external opportunities. Twitter’s financial resources turned out to be rare, as only a few companies in the industry have substantial financial resources. Twitter’s financial resources are organized in such a way as to receive value. These resources are used strategically to invest in the right places, seize opportunities, and combat threats. Thus, these resources turn out to be a source of sustainable competitive advantage for Twitter.
Twitter’s competitive advantages include its real-time operation, global reach, ease of use, and publicity. These factors continue to attract new users and maintain the interest of existing users (Wojcik & Hughes, 2019). While other social media platforms offer some or all of these features, Twitter is often a platform for getting real-time news and information. The main competitive advantages are clearly visible in the SWOT analysis, see Table 1.
The primary approach to the market is that Twitter is aimed at a specific audience, focused on key benefits based on the audience’s point of view and interests, and implemented at the appropriate time. The company segments the market by age category – as of April 2021, almost 60% of Twitter users were between the ages of 25 and 49 (Burgess & Baym, 2022). Moreover, more than 80% of users are under 60. The Twitter audience is usually younger, so they will have to choose another platform if the target age range is mostly approaching retirement. Twitter adheres to a strategy of robust growth. The company’s primary goals are to increase its user base to 315 million monetized daily active users by the end of 2023 and achieve annual revenue of $7.5 billion in 2023(Burgess & Baym, 2022). In this case, there is a perfect sphere of competition in the market.
Conclusion
The key to success in such an organization is transparency and trust. The founders insist that all company employees know their goals and understand why they are set (Wojcik & Hughes, 2019). Financial indicators also demonstrate the success of such a strategy: Twitter’s annual revenue for the fiscal year 2021 was $5.077 billion. Since 2020, revenue has increased by 36.63% (Burgess & Baym, 2022). Currently, Twitter generates revenue mainly through advertising campaigns and data licensing. The current business strategy is very profitable in the existing realities since the company occupies one of the top places in the market, and it needs to attract more users. One of the disadvantages is that such a strategy can attract new users but loose old ones due to the introduction of many innovations.
References
Burgess, J., & Baym, N. K. (2022). Twitter: A biography. NYU Press.
Sweney, M. (2020). Twitter revenue tops $1bn a quarter for first time. The Guardian. Web.
Wojcik, S., & Hughes, A. (2019). Sizing up Twitter users. PEW research center, 24.