While it’s unlikely that Twitter CEO Evan Williams was wearing a Dr. Evil costume when he delivered the news, he had the pleasure of announcing his company’s $1 billion dollar valuation today at an all hands meeting. According to TechCrunch, the company has raised a $50 million dollar funding round and the money will be in the bank shortly. Given the fact that Twitter turned down an offer to be purchased by Facebook earlier in the year, it appears the two are about to tango.
Yesterday Facebook announced reaching the 300 million user mark. The company’s success has been credited to its ability to transform from a basic life streaming service into a platform. After Twitter rejected the company’s acquisition offer, it was no coincidence that real time updates, friend following and improved activity streams were incorporated into Facebook’s redesign. This new round of funding suggests that Twitter is taking a page out of the Facebook playbook and attempting to increase its abilities as a platform.
In the past, ReadWriteWeb has looked at Twitter’s platform potential. The service has already been used to create meme trackers, emergency alert services, news feeds and brand monitoring tools. As the infrastructure and search have improved, Twitter has become the go-to site for real time media. But can the company make a Facebook-like leap?
In late May, Facebook had a valuation of $10 billion dollars based on a $200 million investment from Digital Sky Technologies. And like Twitter, while we’ve seen huge traffic numbers, Facebook only yesterday announced becoming cash-flow positive. If Twitter is attempting to become the “pulse of the planet” as suggested by the widely criticized leak of the company’s internal documents, then perhaps $1 billion dollars isn’t entirely off. Does Twitter have the assets to warrant such a high valuation, or are we looking at the makings of a speculative investment disaster? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
