Twitter's Revenue Plans

Twitter Inc. co-founder Biz Stone outlined the company's plans to generate revenues when speaking with reporters in Mexico City earlier this week.

The trendy microblogging service attracted 20 million users in June and has drawn a reported $55 million in venture capital since its founding three and a half years ago, but it has yet to make money.

An analytics dashboard that will let companies monitor tweets about their products and other services aimed at businesses form the heart of the strategy for paid services, according to a Bloomberg report on Stone's remarks.

The decision to generate revenues in earnest is a tricky one for a fast-growing venture-backed company that may be looking to be acquired, as TechCrunch points out. Once a startup has revenues, its valuation may be tied to a multiple of revenues. Without revenues, a popular startup such as Twitter may be in a stronger position to name its price.

Although Twitter has been courted by the likes of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Facebook Inc., Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), Stone maintains that Twitter wants to remain independent.

To help handle its growth, earlier this month Twitter brought aboard former Google exec Dick Costolo as chief operating officer. Costolo co-founded Feedburner Inc., acquired by Google in 2007.

In addition to the features aimed at businesses, Stone told reporters the company is working on features that would help Twitter users find others with shared interests as well as those who live nearby. Last month, Stone announced that the service will soon add the ability to detect and display location. - Mary Kathleen Flynn

Comments

[Prudent Man...:]

Does anyone produce anything in the U.S. today?

While China sells more cars worldwide than the U.S in August even with the "Cash for Trash Program", which must be paid for with taxes, we spend our time "communicating" nonsense with equipment produced abroad.

How long does anyone believe this can continue?

Sep 09 02:26 PM