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BREAKING: Amazon Invests In Twitter

readwriteweb.com — Twitter just announced yet another sum of funding, this including money from Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezo's fund Bezos Expeditions. The company says the money will be spent on building up its infrastructure and reliability to become the communications utility it needs to be before it can become profitable.

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  • kuz2r, on 06/24/2008, -12/+215Great! Now both services will go down at the same time.
    • turoczy, on 06/24/2008, -1/+18Yes, but at least we'll get Fail Whale graphics or broken robots the next time Amazon goes down.
    • chanop, on 06/25/2008, -1/+14Twitter did go down with Amazon. Twitter uses Amazon services as data storage.
      • Firehed, on 06/25/2008, -1/+7Only for the profile images, AFAIK. That would only result in a fairly small service disruption.
        • chanop, on 06/25/2008, -0/+4I remember reading that twitter was disrupted pretty bad a couple weeks ago when amazon tanked. I'm not positive about that because I never go to that douche-nozzle of a service.
    • cbs31572, on 06/25/2008, -8/+5You can hate all you want on Amazon.com, but if you remove your head from your ass then you will realize what a good company they are compared to their competitors.

      1. They have the best prices on most items (the majority of the time).
      2. Your order is delivered in a very timely manner because they have multiple fulfillment centers geographically located throughout the United States so your order can be delivered faster and usually for free.
      3. They have the best customer service hands down of any business in the world.
      • davidrools, on 06/25/2008, -5/+6amazon fanboy? I didn't know such a thing existed.

        I mean, I like Amazon and have a Prime account and all. I even largely agree with you...until you said they have the best customer service in the world.
      • WhiteIce89, on 06/25/2008, -2/+5They really don't have the best prices, not for me anyway, since NY decided to destroy e-tail markets by charging tax on out-of-state e-tailers.

        I don't know what you consider a "very timely" manner, I've had items with regular shipping take as long as a week and a half to ship, in particular a digital camera for my mom's birthday which sadly didn't come on time.
      • santamanno, on 06/26/2008, -0/+0Can you suggest any other good competitors at European level?
    • Britney90210, on 06/25/2008, -0/+3I agree with you on this. Down to both services lol.
  • marshallk, on 06/24/2008, -2/+44title a touch inaccurate, but it is money from Amazon that's being invested I suppose :)
    • alecks, on 06/25/2008, -0/+5I am just curious, exactly how are they planning on making money from Twitter?
      • ajmccauley, on 06/25/2008, -0/+1ads!!!!
      • jeffhansen, on 06/25/2008, -1/+6Ads - say you tweet: "I just took a dump"...

        And an ad pops up along side your tweet:

        "Discover great taste & Digestive Benefits of Kashi® Vive® Cereal"
        or
        "$12.95 for 1 Week Treatment. Hemorrhoids 100% Healed in 7 Days."
      • Goblin, on 06/25/2008, -0/+1Twitter Japan introduced ads when the service launched there but they have said they don't know if people would accept them putting ads in to the US service now.

        A lot of the Twitter addicts would probably happily pay $5 a month for a reliable service so there is the possibility of moving to an ad supported or ad free pay options for the service, but they would need to fix the infrastructure first. The rumour is they have a single primary SQL server and two secondary to run the whole network.
  • techguru2006, on 06/24/2008, -4/+31Sorry about that Marshall. I misread the article for a minute there, but I guess Jeff = Amazon.com.
    -Amit C
  • ronin691, on 06/24/2008, -8/+6Damn, those stoners at Obvious are drownin' in cash now! Re: http://twitter.com/al3x/statuses/826317860
    • Tribis, on 06/26/2008, -0/+2I think someone needs to smoke a bowl.
  • Chickenlip, on 06/24/2008, -11/+3Where in the world is San Diego, California?
    • larkeferd, on 06/25/2008, -8/+2Why did I read "Where is the world is Carmen Sandiego?"
    • Tabris, on 06/25/2008, -1/+2That was the point. Kudos.
  • chrisbaskind, on 06/24/2008, -2/+19Bezos is familiar with firing his money into space. It follows.
  • jstohler, on 06/24/2008, -9/+1So, Amazon wants to be a media company now?
    • skunkman62, on 06/25/2008, -0/+1RTFA amazon is not investing in twitter. Bezos Expeditions is investing. the title is misleading.

      /but...but..bezos owns amazon
      //STFU
  • BenTrem, on 06/25/2008, -2/+3Proper thing ... if that sorta success doesn't warrant investment then really ...
  • cubby, on 06/25/2008, -4/+2if the king of the cloud can't get it reliable, then no one can.
  • arcooke, on 06/25/2008, -14/+108Breaking? I don't know ANYONE who uses that website.
    • arcticblue, on 06/25/2008, -3/+32Yeah, how the ***** is the "Breaking"? I wish I could filter stories out by keyword. "Breaking", "amazing", and "ever" would the first ones I'd filter.
    • duckyinc, on 06/25/2008, -1/+6It's breaking because it GOT an investment
    • bpapa, on 06/25/2008, -12/+7Agree with the silly "breaking", but everybody is using Twitter now dude.
    • davidrools, on 06/25/2008, -0/+24Twitter is breaking all the time
  • mordea, on 06/25/2008, -2/+52BREAKING: MSNBC reports that on June 26th, the Wikimedia Foundation will officially announce its acquisition of Pornotube.
    • Quicksilver4648, on 06/25/2008, -0/+3What? Redtube.com gets the shaft?
  • shithitinthefan, on 06/25/2008, -5/+5And people thought twitter novels were stupid.
    Well guess what, they still are.
  • Henwood, on 06/25/2008, -10/+159BREAKING: I dropped my wallet in the drain. The efffect is similar.
    • leonardoty, on 06/25/2008, -0/+17But at least there's a chance you'll get your wallet back.
    • mcfara, on 06/25/2008, -1/+2Sometimes I'm utterly perplexed by how investors (Bezos or anyone else) can throw money at something with no revenue and no planned revenue model...and oh yea, it's down all the time.
      • Goblin, on 06/25/2008, -0/+1Twitter's Japanese service is ad supported thus has a revenue model. They just need to adapt the main US service to something similar. An ad sent for every ten messages you receive or a monthly sub for ad free. They need the infrastructure sorted first to make this workable.
    • dinot, on 06/25/2008, -1/+1It broked.
  • whatthefu, on 06/25/2008, -5/+21lol, how is this breaking at all?
  • nasalspray, on 06/25/2008, -4/+51Breaking?
    I'm Wolf *****.....and you're in the Flatulation Room.
  • 10goto10, on 06/25/2008, -3/+38What did it break?
  • chetanthaker, on 06/25/2008, -7/+1I thought Twitter was anyways on Amazon servers ??
  • Lawrencesss, on 06/25/2008, -14/+5THAT IS OVER NINE THOUSAND!!!
  • perot9296, on 06/25/2008, -4/+15Great a site that updates us when people do worthless things such as "watching tv", "check email", "letting eggy farts out".
    Because we all know stuff like that is really important. :/
  • animaniac, on 06/25/2008, -5/+8Jeff Bezos is a Twitter *****
  • KaivenTor, on 06/25/2008, -3/+6Well, hey, maybe Twitter will stop going down every couple of hours. Not sure how this investment will ultimately pay off for Bezos given that Twitter doesn't exactly have a business model in place for itself and is essentially living off borrowed time, but you never know. I have to give Bezos credit for trying though.

    Also, there are some decent uses for Twitter out there, you just have to get through all the crap posting to find them.
  • crampy20, on 06/25/2008, -2/+29breaking news? it happened yesterday...
    • DrDigg, on 06/25/2008, -0/+7broken news?
    • brihar73, on 06/25/2008, -0/+3That was when the story was submitted! Sometimes it takes a while to hit the front page.
  • mikestone1783, on 06/25/2008, -13/+63Twitter is overrated.
    • diggdong, on 06/25/2008, -2/+12How else can someone tell 2,000 people what they are going to eat for lunch.
    • RudeTurnip, on 06/25/2008, -2/+6I deleted my Twitter profile yesterday, as well as my....ok, now brace yourselves...my POWNCE profile! Does this news of the minutia of my life intrigue you?
      Exactly.
      • Goblin, on 06/25/2008, -0/+4I am intrigued by your ideas and wish to subscribe to your Twitter.

        Oh...
    • tzmguitarist, on 06/25/2008, -3/+1Dude I agree. Plurk is so much better. :-D j/k
  • mywhitenoise, on 06/25/2008, -4/+113Buried for "BREAKING".
  • ligyron, on 06/25/2008, -6/+1This is just NOW making the front page?
  • jayobear, on 06/25/2008, -3/+44"Just bought a lime green lampshade. Bargain"

    "Just bought an orange lampshade. Cancelling order of lime green lamp shade"

    "Cancelling order of orange lampshade, reordering lime green lampshade"
    • fudged71, on 06/25/2008, -1/+6brilliant
    • Goblin, on 06/25/2008, -0/+7Can you let us know when your lampshade arrives?
      • jayobear, on 06/26/2008, -0/+1"Ended up buying a red lampshade, cancelled order of lime green lampshade"
    • ProphetPX, on 06/25/2008, -0/+3ROFLMAO !!!
      This is why I do not use Twitter that often, it constantly bombards me with info that i think to myself "Did I REALLY want or need to know that?!"

      sometimes, Twitter's "twits" are just always blurting out way too damn much information!
      • Goblin, on 06/26/2008, -0/+1To be fair it only bombards you with that sort of info if the people you subscribe to post crap. Solution: follow people who aren't losers.
  • LeRenard, on 06/25/2008, -3/+17Twitter is on the verge of being really cool to more than just its core fans, but it just... seems to be lacking something. I have a feeling if I had a lot more friends, and those friends actually did things, and were also geeks, it could be very fun. But as it stands, for me, its sort of like casting tweets into a bottomless pit. No one sees them, and nothing I get back is worth looking at.
    • Duositex, on 06/25/2008, -1/+5I know what it's missing: A POINT
    • gavin422, on 06/25/2008, -0/+1Twitter would be an incredibly powerful service if only we all had iPhones or some other portable internet devices. Right now, it's just too much of a hassle to go to the website just to enter your spur-of-the-moment thought.
  • HamNCheese, on 06/25/2008, -4/+23Kill this "BREAKING" ***** - 2 weeks from now it has no relevance in digg search results.
  • cadmiumpaint, on 06/25/2008, -8/+21I just took a dump.

    i'll update that to twitter. the world really cares what i do with every second of my life.

    twitter = exercise in narcisism

    update* i just yawned.

    • aliguana, on 06/25/2008, -6/+4well, if taking a dump is all you have to Tweet about, then it's not much use to you, is it? Like: a Football tickertape on my screen telling me scores isn't much use to me, because I don't follow football. But I don't make posts like "football scores.. yawn... sad bastards" because some people actually find that useful. Live and let live.
      • cadmiumpaint, on 06/25/2008, -3/+2i guess you're just a supreme human being. much better than me. how dare i make a sarcastic commentary on something. I'm such a horrible digg user. I should take my digg life more seriously.

        i still think the whole concept of a site that enables you to show the second by second details of your life is incredibly narcissistic. And that is prob. why its so popular.

        Social Networking sites at their core are giant exercises in narcissism and making your life seem more interesting than it really is.

        lastly, I'm entitled to my opinion, so let live.

    • doublebummer, on 06/25/2008, -2/+2I'm reading your comment now...actually, I'm replying to your comment now...gonna hit Save Reply in a minute...not sure if I'll click the "Check Spelling" link yet, might just risk it...OK, here it goes...gonna hit save now
  • AllYourBase3, on 06/25/2008, -14/+13Twitter is the stupidest ***** ever.
  • hackiavelli, on 06/25/2008, -7/+7What am I missing? Why is Digg obsessed with Twitter? It looks like just another social networking site.
    • whittmadden, on 06/25/2008, -1/+4It's because of the phrase "tweets" I bet. Not many other important social networking sites, use that kind of groundbreaking terminology.
  • Equinox1, on 06/25/2008, -11/+2Dugg for page title. "Digg - BREAKING"
  • marksands07, on 06/25/2008, -1/+4Maybe now I won't keep getting the "Twitter is over capacity. Too many tweets! Please wait a moment and try again."
  • molotov, on 06/25/2008, -0/+19Amazon DID NOT invest in Twitter. At least get the title right.
  • leonardoty, on 06/25/2008, -3/+10Why invest in something that sucks?
  • Boarhead, on 07/18/2008, -1/+9Its sad when someone that has been on Digg since October 2006 still thinks is a site for BREAKING NEWS!! Post the story as is..There is no reason to pretend to be a CNN or FOX Jr..
  • Aurabolt, on 06/25/2008, -6/+5BREAKING
  • duckyinc, on 06/25/2008, -5/+3Amazing!! New .com bubble!!
    • MrViklund, on 06/26/2008, -0/+2I think you are on to something here. Bubble 2.0.
  • norbiu, on 06/25/2008, -2/+7Stop the ***** presses! A company has just invested in another company!
  • shaherazad, on 06/25/2008, -0/+10How does twitter make money at all?
    • thespacepope, on 06/25/2008, -0/+4Other than investments like this, I don't think they make money.
    • brihar73, on 06/25/2008, -0/+1They don't. If they don't get a buyout soon, you'll start seeing ads in your timelines.
  • United857, on 06/25/2008, -3/+0They should just move the whole thing on top of AWS and be done with it.
  • marshallk, on 06/25/2008, -4/+2ha ha, apparently dig commenters and twitter users = very little overlap. rtfa, all the way to the end, and you'll see the last link is one all about how Twitter can be very legitimately useful
  • krustie, on 06/25/2008, -2/+2The only thing twitter needs investing in is a decent server.

    Perhaps I am not bigheaded enough to 'get' twitter. From what I gather, it's a "web 2.0" application that allows one to share and save messages. aka notepad with friends!
  • soltys, on 06/25/2008, -3/+2add to cart twitter
  • Maria0305, on 06/25/2008, -6/+1Plurk is better.
    • DeepGreene, on 06/25/2008, -1/+1No, it really isn't. Hide half of every message just to display everything in a pointless (backwards) "time-line"? Way to showcase your java skills, guys, but in the final analysis: Meh. Also, everyone on there is witless. :)
  • FredFredrickson, on 06/25/2008, -7/+4I like Amazon... why would they invest in Twitter?

    Twitter is blogspam, but put into a machine gun and shot in rapid, short bursts style. It's a worthless piece of ***** that should not be used. Ever.
  • eastlondoner, on 06/25/2008, -9/+4Sorry but Twitter is the biggest load of ***** I have ever seen. Please ***** god. We do NOT need to know about each others lives to such an extent that we want to read that our friend is just getting a soy ***** latte or that he's in bed reading a ***** book about bumble bees. FOR ***** SAKE. You can get the ***** out right now because this ***** has to stop. ***** WEB 3.31betarc2
    • webjoseph, on 06/26/2008, -0/+1Nor do we need to know what you think about it...
  • jerrysizzler, on 06/25/2008, -10/+6twitter can eat a bag of dicks
    • RobotLeAwesome, on 06/25/2008, -1/+4or a box of vaginas
    • eltardo, on 06/26/2008, -0/+3Louis CK called, he said you and Dane Cook should ***** off. At least give credit when trying to be funny
    • MrViklund, on 06/26/2008, -0/+1lol
  • Adgeman, on 06/25/2008, -3/+7I've no idea why people use Twitter; I see the word all over the place but I've not found a convincing reason why I should use it. Anyone?
    • LowRentDiggs, on 06/25/2008, -2/+13I used to think twitter was useless until I realized it was far more than people posting they were taking a nap or whatever. Twitter is a great place to connect with other people in your field of work and see what they're up to and interesting articles theyve read so you can learn a lot in that way. I also find out about a lot of events that I wouldn't have otherwise.

      The key to twitter: follow people who have interesting things to say. If you aren't getting anything out of twitter you're following the wrong people
      • scott88008, on 06/25/2008, -1/+3Exactly. Every time I find a new person to follow it has the possibility of opening up a whole new world. People post links, breaking news and yes, sometimes just spur of the moment thoughts or observations. Try following the Revision3 crowd, Leo La Porte, Amber Mac Carthy, Jason Calacanis and gradually accumulate a collection of sources that are informative, interesting or just fun.
  • JasonCox, on 06/25/2008, -3/+9(insert joke about Twitter BREAKING)
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