Title of the Article:  :”The Numbers Behind Twitter”

Twitter has recently decided to try to go into public ownership in order to make more of a profit.  According to the article, they made $317 million last year but also lost nearly $79 million.  Not surprisingly , 85% percent of its profits came from advertisements and 65% of that profit was made from mobile Twitter use.  Only a fourth of the user are American and the rest are international users. However, Twitter made more revenue out of advertisements on American users profiles than on international users.  They made $2.17 on Americans compared to a mere 30 cents internationally per user.  There are many factors that contribute to this issue.  For instance,  they aren’t well versed in international advertising, there are more government regulations, and international users often use devices that only allow limited Twitter functionality.  These are issues that Twitter must resolve quickly because they soon will be losing more money and start facing further financial difficulties.  Such as damage to operating results that would decrease its popularity among social network users.

Title of Article: ” Twitter’s Biggest Risk? Losing You”

Twitter has been one of the most popular social networks  over the past years.  This social network has been essential for casual social communication but also for the growth of businesses and the spreading of news.  Currently a large portion of Twitter’s profit comes from the advertisements which are seen by its millions of users.  However, if users don’t log on to twitter, they can’t see these ads, thus, causing Twitter to lose money.  According to the article, the quality of people’s posts is affecting the profit that Twitter receives from advertisements.  Although, the company has seen a growth of 44% during the second quarter of this year compared to the past year.  But as said by the article, Twitter is facing market saturation, therefore, the company is beginning to trying to acquire more users outside of the United States . In order to try to keep the attention of current users or grab new users, Twitter says that they will focus on keeping celebrities, sports figures, politicians, etc. on Twitter because of their influence on users.  Twitter believes that users will go where the celebrities go.

“Twitter’s Biggest Risk? Losing You”

Twitter has expanded its employees to about 2000. However, this is not as important as having good quality of users. The quality of people’s post became a risk factor for Twitter. What that means is that if people do not post interesting things, then fewer people will visit the site and see the advertisements. To expand, Twitter is hoping to grow from other markets too in the rest of the world. However this will not be easy, as there are other companies, like Line(foreign social media site), that are growing as well and it will be competitive.

“The Numbers Behind Twitter” by NICK WINGFIELD

Similar to many companies, Twitter is growing fast but is not making good profit. Its revenue was $28 million in 2010, $106 in 2011, and $317 in 2012. Twitter also lost $67 million in 2010, $128 million in 2011, and $79 million in 2012. Most of the revenue comes from advertising. 85% of the revenue comes from advertising and 65% of that comes from mobile devices. Twitter’s active users are mostly not from the United States. 23% of users are from the United States and 77% are from the rest of the world. To make its business more successful, Twitter is struggling to expand further the world.

“Mutiny Halts Italian Gambit by Berlusconi” NYTimes

“Political theatrics,” thats what seems to be the recent trend not only in American government, but also abroad in Italy-as described in this NYTimes article. What Berlusconi- “the former powerful prime minister” intended to do before the Senate meeting was to bring down the coalition government. As this week the United States & Italy is currently “paralyzed by partisan political warfare,”Americans are in a stalemate regarding the Republicans varying perspectives on the Obama Care Act, while Italy is rather facing a sense of progression with great changes seen in the upcoming days and weeks. This sense of recovery from a time of instability, exemplifies the instability and clashes amongst governments and its people. Besides the American shutdown, and the Italian discrepancies in the Italian Senate, the Kenyan government is also fragile since there are numerous talks on how the government did no respond properly and effectively to the Westgate Mall attacks. These “oppositions to government” which Berlusconi stated, are a form of regression in my estimation, which is a required condition to progress and improve.

In the NY Times article “Neighbors Won’t Give Candy Like This” by Melissa Clark, she states that Halloween candy is a big thing for both kids and adults. There are a lot of holidays where candy is given out but Halloween is the biggest one. Although everyone likes the taste of candy, they’re obviously harmful to your health. The author goes into how she pulled out specific ingredients in candy and make her own healthier candy. For example, she used goat cheese to make almond bars, which contained less sugar,taking more to cause a toothache. These candies she made are to be appealing to adults, so they wouldn’t steal their kids candies while trick-or-treating. I’m sure there are many other recipes you can follow to make your own healthier candy than buying those full of sugar at the grocery store this Halloween.

The article “Schooling Ourselves in an Unequal America” by Rebecca Strauss, compares America’s educational system to other developed countries’ educational systems. Considered once the leading system in the world, American’s educational system is now on a decline. As the gap between the rich and poor is increasing, the gap between the education they’re receiving is as well. The wealthier Americans are receiving a far better education than the middle class and poor. Due to the fact, America is spending more money on the wealthier students, while other countries are favoring the middle class students and poorer students instead. Hence, American college dropout rates are higher, when compared to other countries’ dropout rates. At the same time, preschool enrollment rates for other countries are higher than America’s preschool enrollment rates. Money is the major reason many poor students drop out of college, as they aren’t ready for higher education. In the end, they rather work and earn money to support their families, than to invest in an education.

Social media is a staple to the culture of the upcoming generation. Twitter has rose since the past few years to become a giant attraction for users to post little “tweets” or messages, much like a Facebook status. Since 2010, Twitter has multiplied its revenue by more than 11 times, reaching $317 million dollars in 2012. Despite the growing popularity, the tech company is failing to make a profit, losing $79 million dollars during 2012. 85% of their revenue goes into advertising while the rest remains within their data license. Twitter has still yet to flourish, but the majority of users are actually from foreign countries, not America. The 23% of the Twitter community are Americans and offered $2.17 from advertisements displayed on the timeline. The rest of the revenue from other areas raise a mere $0.30  from advertisements showed to viewers. Twitter needs to discover a better way to expand internationally. Their major setback is the unfamiliarity with digital advertising outside America due to the different factors foreign users face, be it different government regulation or lack of internet access. All in all, Twitter thrives on the advertisements to continue running. If the large tech corporation cannot fashion a new way to expand themselves internationally, what kind of demise will they meet in the end?

Halloween is coming up and candies are soaring onto store shelves.  Customers are buying as much as they can for the little kids that go trick-a-treating. Not only do the little kids enjoy the candy that they receive,  but their parents as well. They  get to steal their candy while they can. While candy tastes so good in our mouths, there are also alternatives to the candy we see in stores. One example would be creating almond bars. By having some goat cheese and beating it with almond butter, regular butter, and confectioner’s sugar, you’ll be able to create almond bars which are just as good as regular candy, but a lot more cleaner, fresher, and healthier. Another candy that you can create for Halloween is salted licorice. Since it comes from Scandinavia and Germany, the taste is hard to acquire. By using sweeten licorice, condensed milk, chocolate, and sea salt, you will be able to make a salted licorice. However, beware this may not be to your satisfaction. Well, for this Halloween, let’s hope we can all create different sugary treats.