You’ve probably seen the news already, Twitter’s board accepted Elon Musk’s buyout offer for $44 Billion. You’ve also likely seen plenty of commentary on the future of the social media platform, what the money could have been better spent on, etc. One thing that has been missing from this conversion is that someone essentially bought a website for $44 Billion.
Websites Are Online Real Estate
There’s a lot of ways to talk about the actual value of Twitter. The reality is that Twitter is more than its users, features, employees, and patents. It is a DESTINATION. It is a place people visit, similar to a shopping mall or any other physical location. Most business consultants will tell you that while you can take your idea, craft a new name, hire away all of the talent, and still never be able to overtake your competitor. It is a much better business investment to just buy out your competitor and continue the business under the name and location. Ultimately the value of Twitter is twitter.com. If Elon Musk ever wanted to have a online property like Twitter, he needed to actually buy Twitter.
C’Mon, Twitter is More Than Just a Website
While this is true, Twitter’s website is what referred everyone to their apps and service offerings. The domain name is an address to that property, and that online property just went for $44 Billion. You may be thinking that you have a website and cannot imagine that site being worth that. While your right to think that, but that’s not the point. The point is that a web property COULD be worth that, just like with a house. You may be living in a house that’s worth $200,000 but there are plenty of houses worth far more and even selling into the millions. The potential value and accruing additional value is contingent on a lot of factors, and the same goes for websites.
Are You Just Renting?
Seeing online properties as analogous to physical real estate is important and can help you understand the importance of your online property. Just like in physical real estate, people and businesses or rent property. Part of the reason is that it shifts liability but the major downside is that you are not building equity and have complete control over that property. Owning online real estate give you the power to provide new online services (like online payments and curbside ordering) and deploying mobile applications. All of this can be done without having to consult your online landlord.
The Foundation of Your Online Property is Critical
It’s a common misconception that websites are just Commoditised in superto build.Well that’s true to an extent, your website should be serving as a foundational element to everything that you do online, even app development. If you were working with the right kind of developer, You can have a websiteand they set up mobile apps that have similar functionality, shared user accounts, and more. This is exactly how Facebook and Twitter operate and it lets them quickly deploy new features to their users in a rapid pace. However if you are running your business website off of a platform like Wix or Weebly, you will have to build out a Whole new website before you can even attempt some mobile app or sophisticated feature.
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