Twitter pulls its data in-house

Twitter is tying a large knot in what it describes as its “fire hose” of data – the half a billion daily messages on its service – by ditching third-party suppliers so brands will have to deal direct with the micro-blogging site.
Although there are only two remaining suppliers of Twitter feed data – DataSift and NTT – the move suggests Twitter wants to cut out the middlemen and sell its data retail.
The company claims the move was a natural progression from its purchase of the leading reseller of Twitter data, Gnip, last year.
The head of Twitter’s ecosystem programme said: “Direct relationships help Twitter develop an understanding of customer needs, get direct feedback for the product road map and work more closely with data customers to enable the best possible solutions for the brands that rely on Twitter data to make better decisions.”
Twitter already has relationships with a number of data analysis and software companies including Acxiom – with which it recently boosted its contract – Adobe and Salesforce.com. It is also working with the likes of IBM to train its consultants and write up case studies about how Twitter data can transform specific industries.
Last year, the company generated $147m (£100m) – about 10% of its revenue – from data licensing and other services, and bosses view data as an area they have only just started to exploit.

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