Twitter To Make Money In 2010 With ‘Non-Traditional’ Ads

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Biz Stone says next year is when Twitter will start making money, and “non-traditional” advertising is how.

The Twitter co-founder, speaking to reporters in Tel Aviv Tuesday, said his company will “start making money” in 2010 and will unveil its plan early next year on how it will produce revenue through advertising. He declined to give details but said advertising will be “non-traditional.”

Still, Stone stressed the company mantra was that it was in no hurry to come up with a business plan, and needn’t be.

“There are no dates when we need to break even. We have plenty of money in the bank,” he said.

In September, Twitter received a new round of funding from investors including mutual fund giant T. Rowe Price and private equity firm Insight Venture Partners, which analysts said set the stage for an eventual initial public offering or sale.

According to a person familiar with the matter, the new funds totaled $100 million, theoretically valuing the company at $1 billion. Stone on Monday said Twitter may eventually go to the stock market for funding if necessary.

Stone also said Twitter also wanted to make more acquisitions as it continues to grow in popularity. “That is something we are definitely interested in,” Stone said. “We made an acquisition last year that turned out to be an outstandingly good decision.” Twitter bought search engine Summize in 2008.

He said there was nothing specific on the horizon. “As our attention is grabbed by some of these developers, we will take a hard look at them,” Stone said.

Stone said Twitter was looking to “partner with as many websites” as possible and that Twitter would keep its platform open for developers.

Stone noted that for now, Twitter will be in English with a next wave into French, German, Italian and Spanish.

“If that works out well, you will see more languages,” he said.

Twitter is one of the world’s fastest-growing social internet companies. Worldwide visitors to its site hit 44.5 million in June, up 15-fold from a year earlier, according to tracker comScore.

Twitter last month forged deals with Microsoft and Google to allow access for its real-time content. It also linked up with professional social network site LinkedIn earlier in November.

Article Source: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/11/twitter-to-make-money-in-2010-with-non-traditional-ads-biz-stone/