By Robert //

I was struck the other week by an article in The Sunday Times which reported that Twitter has been valued at $1 billion, ironically to much "twittering" from outraged economists. I guess you can understand their dismay, the article says:

"Twitter is worth as much as General Motors before it went bust, or twice the value of Domino’s Pizza — a company with 10,500 employees and actual sales of $1.4 billion last year."

But whilst the article focused on Twitter's valuation and subsequent investment of $100m despite not having made a penny (drawing comparisons with Google), what struck me was the fact that journalist and economist alike judge everything by economics. Twitter is either economic or it is not, the article implied, and it's success will be judged accordingly.

Well, here's my take on this. If you're going to judge Twitter on economics then judge it as much on the economic opportunities it delivers to other businesses or professionals who use it. It is the best tool (ever?) for building the social capital of businesses (which basically means we all make more money) and for people who want to express themselves. We know it. You know it. Everyone knows it. But, of course, none of us are going to pay for it.

[Can you tell I'm building up to something?]

So, here's a suggestion. Since Twitter is a public service, of benefit to us all, why not socialise it? Things happen faster because of Twitter. Things happen better because of Twitter. Things happen differently because of Twitter. So why not make it a public service? Free to everyone. Like the BBC...kind of.

Hmm, ok, I agree, that idea is a bit iffy breaking every rule of capitalism we know. The Government would only screw it up anyway. They'd rebrand it to "New Twitter" and insist on it being "accessible".

Actually, my real point is this: let's start judging things by their economic *and* social benefits. Twitter builds social capital...and that has to be worth something.