Social media rivalry deepens
SAN FRANCISCO — Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga are the most followed celebrities on Twitter Inc., yet the pop stars have even more “likes” on Facebook Inc. Now the world’s biggest social network is looking to capitalize.
As Twitter revels in its successful initial public offering, Facebook is pushing onto the microblog’s turf, preparing to roll out a tool that makes it easier for the rich and famous to chat with their followers, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the feature hasn’t been released.
Letting actors, athletes and politicians communicate in 140 characters via public question-andanswer sessions has helped Twitter’s popularity by removing the barrier between celebrity and fan. The stakes escalate now that Twitter has to appease investors while also competing more deeply with Facebook, which is helping its billion-plus users interact with their heroes.
“This is an area of strategic importance to us,” said Justin Osofsky, vice-president of media partnerships and global operations at Menlo Park, Calif.-based Facebook. “We’ve been building our partnerships team in Los Angeles and globally to better work with celebrities and media partners and simultaneously investing in products that better surface the conversation.”
Osofsky didn’t comment on specific products the company is developing. He said his team has grown to more than 10 people and continues to expand. Rachael Horwitz, a Twitter spokeswoman, declined to comment.
This is fresh territory for the web upstarts. Two years ago Facebook and San Francisco-based Twitter were venturebacked social-networking companies trying to prove there was big money to be made in online chats. Now they’re worth about a combined $140 billion and vying for leadership in the social-media advertising market, which is projected to surge to $11 billion in the U.S. in 2017 from $4.7 billion last year, according to researcher BIA/Kelsey.
The celebrity battle is symptomatic of a bigger clash between the two companies. Both are vying to connect advertisers with mobile users, bolster international revenue and hire Silicon Valley’s most coveted developers. Twitter spelled out the challenge in its IPO prospectus.
“We compete against many companies to attract and engage users, including companies which have greater financial resources and substantially larger user bases,” Twitter said.
Twitter jumped more than 70 per cent in its stock market debut on Nov. 7, after raising $2.09 billion in the biggest technology IPO since Facebook’s last year.
Twitter is still a fraction of the size of Facebook, with about one-fifth the market capitalization and number of users and onetwelfth the revenue.
Facebook is using that heft to lure celebrity attention. It’s improving products to woo musicians, sports stars and other popular personalities, encouraging them to interact with fans, according to Osofsky.