Written by Ophir Gottlieb
BREAKING
Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) has partnered with Bloomberg to live stream the presidential debates and the event will likely break records.
STORY
Twitter Inc. already has a partnership with Bloomberg to live stream Bloomberg TV surrounding the financial markets. The company has announced today that the partnership has been extended to include the presidential debates.
Back in 2012 the USA Today reported a stunning amount of growth for Twitter inc. with respect to tweets relative to 2008. At its peak, when then Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney suggested cutting funds to PBS, nearly 20,000 tweets were sent per minute.
HUGE GROWTH
Two million tweets were sent in the 24-hours and first two minutes of the Romney and Obama debate in 2012. Back in 2008, a total of 500,000 tweets were sent out for all four debates.
You can read that again -- there were 400% as many tweets sent leading into 2012 than there were in four full debates in 2008. The first 2012 debate alone totaled 10.3 million tweets, that's more than 20-fold higher than 2008 in one debate in 2012 compared with all four in the prior cycle.
HERE COMES 2016
In what has been one of the most polarizing presidential campaigns ever, Clinton and Trump promise to bring record viewership to the debates and likely record social media engagement. While some of the recent Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) deals feel like a win for Twitter and a "we'll see" for their partners, this time, the roles have reversed.
Bloomberg did this because they want to win the eyeballs of Americans, and this time, Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) is not a "we'll see," it's a "must have."
In a wildly different situation this year, people will be able to watch the debate inside the Twitter app as well as on Apple TV, Xbox and Amazon Fire TV. Further, the Twitter Inc. and Bloomberg collaboration will include pre and post-debate analysis.
Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) also reported that the deal with Bloomberg is exclusive, which means the old relationship with CBS for the primary debates is over. While Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) has also announced a partnership with ABC to live stream the debates, for once, the smaller Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) may be a better bet, even given Facebook Inc.'s enormous user base.
AD DOLLARS
Ad Age recently reported that there will be $7.5 billion spent in advertising for this election cycle, more than was expected and a boost to the overall advertising market. Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) is not only the "must have" for the debates, it may be the "must advertise", as well.
The author is long shares of Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) and has no position in Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB).
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