For instance, TweetDeck (a popular Twitter client) uses bit.ly as its default shortener. They use desktop clients or browser based tools instead which incorporate one service or the other. Traffic to and cannot be trusted as reliable proxies for usage because heavy users don’t go to the corresponding websites.
Bit.ly also offers better analytics and tracking tools on the backend.ĭon’t get too caught up in the site traffic growth figures either, though. Why is bit.ly growing so much faster? One big reason is because it creates even shorter URLs than TinyURL does by about five characters ( versus ). Bit.ly seems to be shooting up like a rocket, while TinyURL may have plateaued. Yes, I am making up these numbers, just like the investors do.īut wait. So by that metric, if bit.ly is worth $8 million, TinyURL should be worth at least $46 million (8/13 X 75 = 46.15).
The biggest URL shortner out there is actually TinyURL, which commands a 75 percent share. Its market share of shortened links, as calculated by Tweetmeme, is only 13 percent. Assuming bit.ly sold 20 percent of its shares to its new investors (the O’Reilly Alpha Tech Fund, Mitch Kapor, and Howard Lindzon), that would imply an $8 million pre-money valuation ($10 million post-money). Today, one of these URL shortening services, bit.ly, raised $2 million, sparking the question: How much are these things actually worth? Nobody really knows.īut here is some fun math. It is the only practical way to share links on the service. So-called URL shortening services are increasingly becoming indispensable to anyone who uses Twitter.
That goes double (or is it half?) for lengthy URLs. In a world where everything is being jammed into 140 characters or less, shorter is better.
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