4 ms·

Is Twitter actually making any money? I find these billion dollar valuations pretty crazy if the company in question is not actually making any money. Sure, M

by frb 16y ago

Is Twitter actually making any money? I find these billion dollar valuations pretty crazy if the company in question is not actually making any money. Sure, Microsoft and Google have their strategies and would spare no pains (money) to score each other off, but this overvaluation of companies is just not healthy for the tech industry. It just feeds the next big bubble.

malloreon 16y ago
During a conversation I had last week a colleague who's dealt with Twitter told me that they make $100M-$200M each year licensing the firehose.
- samtp 16y ago
  So they have a 20 - 40x valuation? wow
  - cheald 16y ago
    Valuation is not the same as "yearly income". Not anywhere close to that. If you sell a company for 1 year's worth of income, you're a fool.
    - axod 16y ago
      Unless it's a y2k bug company, and it's October 1999.
    - samtp 16y ago
      I thought normal valuation was 5 - 7x revenue, not 20 - 40x.
      - cheald 16y ago
        Twitter is arguably not a normal company. They have mindshare that is worth a lot more than Random Internet Startup.
- axod 16y ago
  How many customers do they have though. If they're 'licensing' the firehose to Google and MS, that's pretty unreliable income.
  - malloreon 16y ago
    Publicly their firehose customers include Google, MS, and ~10-12 startups whose names I don't know. Soon they'll begin seeing revenue from the new half/10% hose plans announced last week.
thesethings 16y ago
We know they make at least 100K each day (per market?) for Promoted Trends, which Ev said they were out of stock on. That doesn't count promoted tweets. We also know the firehose access they gave to MS + Google cost millions of dollars each. Which is separate from the access they gave Gnip. The screenshots of the business-friendly analytics tool they have coming out soon seems like it could be a "pro" tool, though I won't full on guess they will charge for it.

by frb 16y ago

malloreon 16y ago

During a conversation I had last week a colleague who's dealt with Twitter told me that they make $100M-$200M each year licensing the firehose.

samtp 16y ago
So they have a 20 - 40x valuation? wow
- cheald 16y ago
  Valuation is not the same as "yearly income". Not anywhere close to that. If you sell a company for 1 year's worth of income, you're a fool.
  - axod 16y ago
    Unless it's a y2k bug company, and it's October 1999.
  - samtp 16y ago
    I thought normal valuation was 5 - 7x revenue, not 20 - 40x.
    - cheald 16y ago
      Twitter is arguably not a normal company. They have mindshare that is worth a lot more than Random Internet Startup.
axod 16y ago
How many customers do they have though. If they're 'licensing' the firehose to Google and MS, that's pretty unreliable income.
- malloreon 16y ago
  Publicly their firehose customers include Google, MS, and ~10-12 startups whose names I don't know. Soon they'll begin seeing revenue from the new half/10% hose plans announced last week.

thesethings 16y ago

We know they make at least 100K each day (per market?) for Promoted Trends, which Ev said they were out of stock on. That doesn't count promoted tweets. We also know the firehose access they gave to MS + Google cost millions of dollars each. Which is separate from the access they gave Gnip. The screenshots of the business-friendly analytics tool they have coming out soon seems like it could be a "pro" tool, though I won't full on guess they will charge for it.