Twitter chief determined to remain independent
Amidst a flurry of investor interest in social media, with deals surrounding groupon, Facebook and LinkedIn Twitter chief Dick Costolo remains adamant that his firm will retain its independence.
Costolo is convinced that Twitters advertising services, such as “promoted tweets”, were sufficient to create a profitable business model.
This, Costolo, believes is vindication of his strategy to pursue a high share valuation rather than be subsumed by a larger competitor, though Costolo added that a public flotation was not yet on the cards.
Thus far Twitter has struggled to monetise its 106m accounts with analysts suggesting that the site attracted less than $100m in advertising revenue last year, leading some to query the sites current $3.7bn valuation.
A leading sceptic of these valuations is Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp, of Intelligise Ltd, who wrote of Facebook in his blog: “500m users and they still need fresh venture capital as they haven’t figured out how to make a profit yet – let’s all buy shares in that business! Oh wait a minute – did I call it a business? It’s a craze that will start to fizzle out in the next 18 months.”