On Wednesday, Twitter and, social data provider, Gnip formally announced a partnership to make Twitter data commercially available through Gnip’s social media API. The partnership marks the first time a structured agreement has been available for businesses to purchase large quantities of streaming Tweets and is intended to encourage social media analysis around the wealth of Twitter’s data.
There’s a significant demand for monitoring and analytics tools that allow businesses to better listen to their customers on Twitter. To meet this demand, Gnip will now offer three Twitter feed products: Twitter Halfhose, Twitter Mentionhose, and Twitter Decahose. Each Hose will offer varying degrees of access to Twitter data. Twitter Halfhose, for example, will provide 50% of all Twitter messages for $360,000 per year.
Product Strategist and Former CEO, Evan Williams, explained that the partnership is by no means a monetization effort, but rather a conscious move to make Twitter data available to the companies who want to use it to surface trends, determine influencers and analyze engagement metrics. But with such pricey products will small innovators be left out of the market?
