Kodak Bought Stake In Photo Sharing Service TweetPhoto

Old meets new. It turns out that US based Kodak was so sweet on fellow US company TweetPhoto that following a partnership they took a stake in the service.

Kodak, the well known and respected company that became famous for print film and film based cameras, has had a long and difficult walk into the digital age. Their traditional business went from being a 15 billion dollar enterprise, to doing a mere 200 million in yearly turnover. When your market dries up, you begin to look for water elsewhere.

TweetPhoto is a popular Twitter service, attracting millions of users around the world. It is still dwarfed by market leader Twitpic, but is now larger than the third major picture sharing website Yfrog. Tweetphoto’s massive growth has shown there is still plenty of room for growth in the Twitter ecosystem, even as total Twitter growth slows.

Kodak and TweetPhoto had previously collaborated on a promotion involving the hastage #kodaktweets and a number of Kodak camera giveaways. Kodak is determined to catch up in the digital space, and making small deals with upstart companies is a great way to expand into growing new markets.

Of course, Kodak is hardly planning on turning a quick profit on its investment, instead is will use TweetPhoto to promote its products. It is doubtful to yield a positive return quickly, but if the service keeps growing, Kodak and Twitter photos might just become linked in consumers minds. Image via TechCrunch.