June 23, 2009

[Cannes Lions] Twitter mania

By Gisele Wertheim-Aymes in Cannes, Social media, advertising | 0 comments

Well, I’m back in Cannes. One year later and ready to learn some more. Just arrived and went straight to a session with one of Twitter’s founders, Biz Stone (@biz). The Debussy Hall was packed wall-to-wall and floor-to-floor and the place was tweeting so much I was sure at one point I felt the room vibrating.

Stone looks about 16, very charming, friendly and speaks in this naive and very honest manner. What did I learn? Well, that he’s learning still (yes, he’s honest enough to admit this). The company is still in its infancy and it won’t sell now even at US$ 500 million. He sees collaboration with other social media as key and can’t say what’s Twitter’s biggest threat. Admits to not really knowing.

Check out @JetBlue - company started out small on Twitter, but Stones cites its as doing a great job. He also doesn’t see Twitter as a competitor to big news groups, even though Twitter is now breaking news faster than most newswire services (just type ACCIDENT if you don’t believe him) and he wants to be friends with all.

No real answers on how it’s going to make money, but hey, this is not unusual… FaceBook can attest. Stones is evangelical when he says, “Twitter is a truimph of humanity and not a triumph of technology” - sound familiar?

Don’t forget to follow my live tweeting from Cannes!

Gisele Wertheim-Aymes, FNB head of media
Bizcommunity.com guest blogger

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