Twitter finally making revenue but no IPO in sight

Social networking giant Twitter is finally making revenue but any sale of the company is out of the question, co-founder Biz Stone has revealed.

The comments come after speculation has grown on the internet regarding the company’s ability to make money, after leaked documents earlier this year showed the company intends to earn $US4.4 million during the current quarter.

Stone confirmed that number yesterday, with the company now earning revenue from companies such as Microsoft, which has paid to index “tweets” on its Bing search engine.

“2010 is really going to be the revenue year. I don’t know if we’re going to be profitable, but we have plenty of time”, Stone said. He mentioned a new type of advertising that would differ from display ads, saying “Everyone’s going to love it. It’s going to be amazing”.

While Stone said the company had refused advertising to begin with, because “we first needed to create value for users, before we create value for ourselves”, he nevertheless maintained its strategy would be “very non-traditional” and help attract new users.

Other products announced by the company earlier this year, including premium accounts for businesses, are still in the pipeline. However, Stone refused to go into detail regarding a breakdown of the company’s revenue streams.

Stone also told reporters at the event that “we are definitely not interested in selling the company”, but that an initial public offering could be in the company’s future.

“The point is, we want to build our own company that will last for a long time. If an IPO’s the way to do that, then sure. We don’t have it checked off on the calendar yet,” he said at the University’s entrepreneur workshop.

“We are definitely not interested in selling the company… if there is some other way then that would be great too. Maybe some other new way will emerge.”

The remark comes after the company received a new round of funding from investors in September, including private equity firm Insight Venture Partners and mutual fund T. Rowe Price, which some analysts have said is a precursor to an IPO.

The latest round of funding has placed the company’s valuation at about $US1 billion, but that number could rise as the company’s revenue grows over the next year.