As Twitter will soon go up on the stock market for various people to invest on, its future profits and growth must be considered. One of the most known ways for social media websites to make money is through advertisements.

As an active Twitter user, I have seen Twitter’s advertisement efforts for the past two years. Usually they have a sponsored tweet, which I assume shows up on everyone in the world’s timeline of tweets or a selected audience’s timeline, once every day or so as shown on my Twitter timeline in this picture:

And also advertisements can be done in trends which usually changes everyday or so as well shown in this picture:

If someone were to look into invest in Twitter when it goes public, I would be a little worried that Twitter only has two visible ways for a active user like me to see. Whereas its competition, Facebook, has 4 visible ads on its homepage that changes depending on the user’s interest and search history like on this picture: 

Although Twitter has promised new ways of advertisement as the Financial Times article reports, but whether or not their new strategies will work remains a question and new investors should definitely look into Twitter’s future growth regarding their advertisement value.

References:

Steel, E. (2013, October 7). Financial Times. Retrieved from Financial Times : http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/e4b650f4-2f5b-11e3-8cb2-00144feab7de.html

Pictures: All the pictures are my own, captured from my own social media account.

LG, a Korean technology company, is known for their TVs, and appliances and are considered to be in the top line of competition in those markets. However, for the smartphone market, they are not even close to being in people’s minds as a leading smartphone company. To beat the likes of Samsung and Apple, LG has announced that they will be coming out with phones that have flexible curved screens which will be new to the market and especially different from Samsung’s curved phones. The curved phones are definitely an unexplored market in smartphones and LG could potentially succeed greatly through this venture but the answer of whether the curved screens will be a hit or not is vague at the moment. However, LG is showing the public that to get ahead and leap over the competition, you must explore the unexplored, and be innovative.

References: BBC. (2013, October 7). BBC. Retrieved from BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24426744

Picture: Silbert, S. (Photographer). (2013, may 21). [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/21/lg-5-inch-oled-display-hands-on/

An article surfaced on the Globe and Mail which stated that popular punk band Nirvana, which was disbanded in 1994 with the death of the lead singer, Kurt Cobain, will be releasing a twenty year anniversary version of the band’s last CD, In Utero, now newly mixed. The article continued to talk about Nirvana’s history and stories of In Utero’s release back in the 1990’s.

However, reading from a business point of view, what I read was a marketing technique used by DGC Records whom own the right to Nirvana’s last CD. Kurt Cobain’s grunge appeal, a big fan base, and controversy around Kurt Cobain’s death all contribute to Nirvana’s popularity and DGC Records’s marketing department is taking full advantage of that by releasing the same album with slight modifications twice. DGC Records has already released a 20th anniversary album for the band’s 2nd studio CD, Nevermind. Since Nirvana’s CD’s were such a hit back in the 90’s, there is no reason that the huge fan base of Nirvana, the collection fanatics, and also the adults who spent their teens listening to Nirvana will hesitate to buy this product.

References: Wheeler, B. (2013, October 6). The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from The Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/in-utero-reborn-beautiful-warts-and-all/article14681110/

Picture: DGC. (Photographer). [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://www.baeblemusic.com/musicblog/8-28-2013/Nirvanas-In-Utero-Anniversary-Reissue-Is-Massive.html