Article Information

Readers: 51 | Updated: 04-15

Bidding On A Twitter Account: Insanity or Efficient Market?

Translate Into:

It's been a mildly interesting weekend.

One of the interesting things that happened was a TechCrunch article that described Andrew Baron selling his Twitter account

It was the weekend, and I was looking for some quick amusement value, so I jumped into the auction on eBay.  Things got really interesting from there.

There's been a lot of discussion on the TC article and on Twitter itself about how crazyhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/wronghttp://feeds.feedburner.com/idiotic this whole thing is.  Amidst all the noise, a few good points have been made.

Since I'm currently the high bidder, I figured I'd share my two cents as to why I'm bidding on a Twitter account at all (I'm not even that big of a Twitter user yet). 

If you're an OnStartups reader and like Twitter, you can follow @OnStartups.

Thoughts On Bidding For A Twitter Account

1.  I think of this as being a "digital asset" -- akin to a blog.  Like a blog, a Twitter account has a "readershiphttp://feeds.feedburner.com/following".  Just like a blog can be a personhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/businesshttp://feeds.feedburner.com/hobbyhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/whatever, so can a Twitter account.  Based on this, I don't see anything inherently wrong with someone selling (or buying) a Twitter account.

2.  Twitter allows you to change the name of an account after it's been created.  So, I could change the account to www.twitter.comhttp://feeds.feedburner.com/technogeeks if I wanted (which right now, is still available).  [Note:  That's not the name I'm planning to use, so if you want it, go for it].

3.  The account being sold had 1,400+ followers at the time it was listed and now has 1,600+ followers (presumably because of all the buzz around the sale).  That's interesting.  Much of the chatter on the account right now is about the sale.  If people were planning on leaving in droves, I'd expect it to start happening already.

4.  Twitter followers can easily "un-follow" an account.  So, although some have made the argument that this is somehow "wrong", the ease (and safety) of opting-out unfollowing makes me feel fine with it.  Contrast this to if a company sold your name as part of a big mailing list.  At least with Twitter, you don't need anyone else to get you off someone's follower list.  You want off, you're off.  It's that easy.

4.  I've been finding more and more interesting people on Twitter lately.  So, although I've been skeptical of it, there may end up being a there there.

So, the question is, what am I going to do with the account if I do actually win the auction?  I can't tell you yet -- but I do have some ideas (none of which are nefarious and require an evil laugh).  Stay tuned...

Did you like this article? If so, please share it with others.

Digg digg it | Reddit reddit | del.icio.us del.icio.us | StumbleUpon StumbleUpon 

Thanks for your support. 
Original Article
Copyright 2007, Dharmesh Shah - OnStartups - Software Startup Blog



From The Blogs

Clever Dude Finances & Life

04-17
Create an ING Login ID (No More Account Number!)
Copyright © 2006-2008 Clever Dude. All Rights Reserved. FiveCentNickel alerted me to the Saver ID that ING Direct is now offering its customers the opportunity to create a login ID rather than using t... 查看全文

Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim

04-18
Buy a Twitter Account or Google Tour on eBay
It started with Rocketboom founder Andrew Baron putting his Twitter account up for auction on eBay. He had 1,500 followers then and at last check hes at 1,757. The auction was bid up to over $1200 bef... 查看全文

Mashable!

04-18
Rocketboom Founder Pulls eBay Auction For His Twitter Account
This past weekend, I reported on Andrew Baron, founder of Rocketboom, auctioning off his Twitter account and all of the followers that went with it.Well, even after the auction reached over $1500, Mr.... 查看全文

Consumerist

04-21
Wachovia Opens Bank Account Without Permission, Starts Charging Fees [Banking]
John can't understand how Wachovia charged his startup $12 in fees for failing to maintain a minimum balance when his company never opened an account with Wachovia in the first place. Apparently, his ... 查看全文

b5media Travel and Culture Channel Feed

04-22
Yahoo Philippines is Looking for an Account Manager [Filipina Soul]
Yahoo Philippines is seeking to hire a Partner Account Manager. The successful candidate will: •Cultivate and foster relationships with Yahoo!’s resellers and top advertisers.•Develop and implement st... 查看全文

Blueprint for Financial Prosperity

04-22
Vanguard: Rolling Over 401(k), Changing Account Names & Ownership
Ever have one of those days where you crank out a bunch of things on your to-do list? I had one of those last week and it had a retirement and investing theme to it (thats why Im writing about it!). I... 查看全文

Consumerist

04-30
Burger King Exec Hides Behind Daughter's Email Account To Trash Talk Opponents [Living Wages]
The next time Burger King VP Stephen Grover goes online to spread FUD about labor advocates, he should probably leave his daughter out of it. For one thing, she's a horrible accomplice and will spill ... 查看全文

Gather Little by Little

05-01
How to secure your eBay account
Photo by: leafar This morning I received an email from eBay stating that my email address had been changed.I often get email from eBay, Paypal, and various banks stating things like this, along with r... 查看全文

Slashdot

05-01
Post-Suicide Account Cracking?
An anonymous reader writes "A good friend of mine had her younger brother apparently commit suicide last week. He was a young, promising CS major who was close to being accepted into a very prestigiou... 查看全文

Wise Bread

05-01
Special offer: 250GB online storage account for free - UPDATE
By Paul MichaelIve written about free online storage in the past, but nothing comes close to this. For a limited time, filedropper.com is giving away 250GB storage accounts to bloggers for free. This ... 查看全文
More Articles

OnStartups 's Hot Articles

OnStartups 's Latest Articles

OnStartups 's Related Blogs

OnStartups Blogs Digged Most