years from now, it could be a fascinating historical footnote: donald j. trump , the next president of the united states, is a steady twitter user. yet the company is unprofitable, recently announced layoffs and appears to still be figuring out its place in the world. more than 17 months after mr. trump announced his plans to run for president <u+2014> in the process turning twitter into a destination for political news <u+2014> the social media service hasn<u+2019>t figured out how to cash in on all this attention. the good news for the company? it doesn<u+2019>t appear as if the spotlight will fade anytime soon. three weeks after the election, mr. trump shows no signs of letting up on his late-night twitter posts. indeed, they have become so common that news outlets and historians are debating whether they should be ignored so that news requiring more than 140 characters can get more attention. ignored? don<u+2019>t tell that to twitter. the san francisco company has always had a bit of an identity problem. is it the place for water cooler talk? is it a virtual town square? a tool for political operatives? a cesspool of trolls? chances are, the company would accept almost any of those labels <u+2014> o.k., maybe not the cesspool one <u+2014> if it meant turning a profit.
daily report: twitter struggles to turn prominence into profit
jim kerstetter