????微博服務(wù)商Twitter起初曾因為不夠直觀的奇怪格式被人嘲笑,，但如今我們都看到了，這家公司令所有人大跌眼鏡,。Twitter已成為大受歡迎的信息分享和造勢平臺,，而其140個單詞的字數(shù)限制完全符合現(xiàn)代社會人們注意力短暫的需求。

????然而,，盡管Twitter收入強勁,，且去年年底時月平均活躍用戶數(shù)高達2.41億，投資者仍然擔心它在持續(xù)提升用戶數(shù)量,、時間線瀏覽量（該指標衡量Twitter的用戶粘性）以及每位用戶帶來的廣告收入方面后勁不足,。下方的圖表顯示，Twitter的增長確實在放緩,。

????要解決這個問題,，Twitter應(yīng)重新審視自己的商業(yè)模式。由于字數(shù)限制,，Twitter用戶在每條微博中僅能表達單個想法,、理念或消息，而且76％的用戶都是通過移動設(shè)備訪問Twitter,。于是,，Twitter由此成了一個傳播速度飛快的平臺。相關(guān)性和時機在Twitter平臺上非常重要,。盡管如此,，用戶卻常常在Twitter上分享一些毫無營養(yǎng)（甚至有些煩人）的信息（即“我正在吃牛排晚餐，＃肉食動物,，我的貓咪最可愛”之類的）,，哪怕是那些平時微博質(zhì)量很高的用戶也不例外。

????問題在于，用戶的時間線頁面越是被一些雞毛蒜皮的消息所充斥,，就越會損害Twitter成為重要理念嚴肅交流平臺的潛力,。因此，Twitter需要設(shè)法激勵用戶發(fā)表更有內(nèi)涵,、更有意義的微博,，比如對用戶發(fā)布的微博按條收費。它將鼓勵用戶盡量少發(fā)毫無內(nèi)容的微博,，只發(fā)值得自己花錢來發(fā)布的信息,。當然，還是會有用戶愿意花錢來發(fā)布泄憤的,、垃圾的或其它毫無意義的微博消息,，但按條收費應(yīng)該有助于減少這類微博的數(shù)量。

????這個舉措可能大有前景,。假定Twitter對用戶發(fā)布的微博按每條1美分收費,，同時假設(shè)按條收費使微博的條數(shù)（目前每天大約5億條）減半，這個舉措將給Twitter帶來9億美元的額外收入,，而2014年Twitter的預(yù)期收入也僅為11億美元,。這還沒有算上Twitter可能獲得的廣告收入增長。微博的內(nèi)容質(zhì)量提高能增強用戶粘性,，而Twitter則可借此提高廣告費率,。

????我本人就是Twitter的重度用戶，如果我收到的Twitter消息的相關(guān)性和質(zhì)量更高,，我查看自己時間線頁面的次數(shù)會更多,。同時，如果按條收費的做法減少了無聊微博的數(shù)量,，從而幫助我節(jié)省了寶貴的時間和精力,，我也會愿意付費發(fā)微博。（財富中文網(wǎng)）

????本文作者是一位政治和商業(yè)評論員,。他曾在拉扎德和德利佳華這兩家投資銀行任職,，還曾為對沖基金Ramius效力。他目前是中端市場廣播服務(wù)提供商戴維森媒體集團的董事,。作者擁有哥倫比亞大學商學院的工商管理碩士學位,，還著有兩部驚悚小說。

????譯者：項航

????Twitter (TWTR) was initially derided for its strange and non-intuitive format, but as most of us have seen, the micro-blogging service confounded expectations; it has become a wildly popular medium for sharing information and creating buzz, and its 140-character limit is perfect for the short attention span of modern society.

????Yet, despite strong earnings and a monthly average of 241 million active users at the end of last year, investors are concerned about the company's ability to keep growing its user base, timeline views (which measures how engaged users are with Twitter), and advertising revenue per user. As you can see in the chart below, Twitter's growth rate is slowing down.

????To address this, the company should reexamine its business model. Twitter (TWTR), due to its short format, only enables users to deliver a single thought, idea, or piece of information in a tweet, and 76% of users access it via mobile. This makes it a brutally fast medium where both relevance and timing are important. Still, users frequently share the most random (and borderline annoying) thoughts: (i.e. I'm having steak for dinner #meateater, I have the cutest cat), including users who at other times tweet intelligently.

????The problem is that the more users' timelines gets cluttered with frivolous tweets, Twitter's potential as a serious medium for the interchange of important ideas gets compromised. Accordingly, the company needs to create an incentive for users to tweet more thoughtfully and meaningfully, such as a charge per tweet. This would encourage users to minimize white noise and tweet only what they are willing to pay for. That isn't to say that some users would not pay to tweet rants, spam, or other types of nonesense, but charging for tweets should help reduce the volume.

????The numbers could be promising. Say that Twitter charged its users a penny a tweet, and let's also assume that charging for tweets reduces the volume (currently, about 500 million tweets per day) by 50%. That would generate an additional $900 million for Twitter, on top of its currently projected revenues of $1.1 billion in 2014. This also does not include the bump that Twitter could get in advertising revenues as more relevant tweets could lead to higher engagement by users and enable the company to increase its advertising rates.

????As an avid Twitter user myself, I'd check my timeline more regularly if my twitter feed were more relevant and of a higher quality. I would also be willing to pay to tweet if the system decreased the volume of frivolous tweets, thereby saving me valuable time and energy.

????Sanjay Sanghoee is a political and business commentator. He has worked at investment banks Lazard Freres and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, as well as at hedge fund Ramius. Sanghoee sits on the Board of Davidson Media Group, a mid-market radio station operator. He has an MBA from Columbia Business School and is also the author of two thriller novels.