twilio

Businessmodel of Twilio

Customer Segments

Twilio has a niche market business model, serving a specialized customer segment. Its products target companies that want to embed telecommunications features into applications.

Value Proposition

Twilio offers two primary value propositions: customization and flexible pricing.

The company’s platform has a number of options offering customers flexibility.  They can build applications with any programming language that communicates standard HTTP. Also, they can ship and iterate new features leveraging their existing technology stack. Lastly, they can scale volume up and down at short notice without any code changes.

The company offers a “pay-as-you-go“ pricing model and automatic volume discounts that scale up and down with usage. This makes it a more cost-effective option than those of similar competitors.

Channels

Twilio’s main channel is its direct sales force, through which it acquires new customers. It also markets its offerings through its website.

Customer Relationships

Twilio’s customer relationship is primarily of a personal assistance nature. The company offers 24/7 e-mail support on all accounts. It also provides plans featuring a higher degree of support. The Guaranteed Response plan moves a customer’s inquiry to the top of the priority list. The Personal Support Engineer Plan offers a dedicated Twilio support engineer for a particular client.

Key Activities

Twilio’s business model consists of maintaining its proprietary software platform for its customers.

Key Partners

Twilio has a program through which it invites “Solution Partners” to work with the company. Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) produce a solution with communications powered by Twilio while System Integrators (SIs) build or integrate Twilio into a client’s existing solution to build new applications for a client or enable communications capabilities. Partners have access to the following resources:

Marketing Support:

  • Placement on Twilio Showcase
  • Features in demand generation campaigns
  • Twilio support for press releases, blogs, and other online content
  • Partner story on Twilio website
  • Use of the Twilio Partner logo
  • Invites to exhibits at Signal, roadshows, and other events

  • Additional co-marketing activities Technical Support:

  • Standard Twilio Support
  • Discounts on Support Plans
  • Virtual Office Hours with Twilio staff
  • Access to private betas/early access to new products
  • Training for support team ### Key Resources

Twilio’s main resource is its proprietary software platform, which is used by over 560,000 developers.  It also depends on key human resources such as technology staff to monitor and enhance the platform and customer service staff to address client concerns.

Cost Structure

Twilio has a value-driven structure, aiming to provide a value proposition through personal service. Its biggest cost driver is likely customer support/operations, owing to the numerous customer support plans it offers. Other major drivers are sales and marketing and administrative expenses.

Revenue Streams

Twilio has one revenue stream, the prices it charges for its platform’s various services. These services are as follows:

  • Voice: Customers can connect and route voice calls for a low per-minute price.
  • SIP Trunking: Customers can instantly provision IP infrastructure with global voice connectivity.
  • Client: Customers can communicate over VoIP to any browser or mobile application for a low per-minute price.
  • Network Traversal Service: Customers can use free STUN lookup and low-cost TURN media relay capabilities distributed across five continents.
  • Messaging: Customers can send SMS and MMS to almost 200 countries.
  • TaskRouter: Customers can orchestrate interactions within CRM, Support workflows and IoT using a vendor-agnostic API for intelligent task routing.
  • International: Customers can explore connectivity, termination coverage, and instantly-provisionable local, national, toll-free, and short code number availability in almost 200 countries.
  • Lookup: Customers can identify local-friendly number formats, reduce undelivered messages, and protect from spam/fraud.
Written on October 25, 2017