Twitter and LinkedIn will continue to see strong advertising growth, with Twitter’s revenue expected to nearly double between 2012 and 2014, according to a report by eMarketer Digital Intelligence.
The report comes against the backdrop of Facebook’s pending, initial public offering and illustrates that advertising models for social networks seem to be working. Twitter gets 90% of its revenue from U.S. advertisers, while LinkedIn depends more on foreign advertisers, with just 68% of its 2012 ad revenue expected to come from the U.S.
The report did note, however, that both companies can expect growth rates to slow from their current levels. eMarketer is projecting 83% revenue growth for Twitter this year, down from 233% in 2011, and 46.1% revenue growth for LinkedIn, down from 95% in 2011.
Still, if eMarketer’s analysis of data from dozens of research firms, company information and industry trends is correct, Twitter will have revenue of $540 million by 2014. LinkedIn would have revenue of $405.6 million by 2014, fueled in part by an increase in U.S.-based advertising.
Speaking at the AllThingsD media conference on Monday, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said the company has no plans to develop new revenue streams.
“We think we’re good where we’re at,” Costolo said, according to Wired. “We don’t feel like we need to add another component to the business in order to create the lasting company.”
LinkedIn has recently come under fire for its advertising practices. Its privacy policy allows the company to use users’ personal information in ads for the site. While the policy has been in effect for quite some time, it recently gained attention as messages highlighting it started spreading among users of the jobs and careers social network.
