Twitter Gets Fresh Injection Of Funding

Twitter co-founder Evan Williams has confirmed the microblogging service closed a funding round from Insight Venture Partners, T. Rowe Price, Institutional Venture Partners, Spark Capital and Benchmark Capital.

Twitter lets users post messages of up to 140 characters to its Website. Numerous media reports said the funding totaled $100 million (£63m), valuing the startup at $1 billion despite the absence of any solid revenue.

Williams declined to provide financial details in a this blog post on the news, but wrote on the company blog: “It was important to us that we find investment partners who share our vision for building a company of enduring value. Twitter’s journey has just begun and we are committed to building the best product, technology and company possible. I’m proud of the team we’ve built so far and I’m confident in the future we’ll build together.”

Twitter, which has already received $55 million in funding from Benchmark Capital and Institutional Venture Partners, has become intensely popular in 2009. More than 54 million users use per month, according to comScore.

While Twitter’s acquisition talks with Facebook and Google earlier this year failed to bear fruit, the new funding proves is Twitter intends to stay and independent.

The company has been boosting its value proposition for businesses, publishing its Twitter 101 manifesto to instruct businesses how to use it. Twitter also revised its terms of service to allow for advertising in the future.

While Dell, JetBlue, PepsiCo and others have already used Twitter to boost sales, the company is expected to set up and charge for services to allow businesses to market and promote themselves on the service. Twitter would also charge for analytical insight into those services.

The company also said it will soon offer geolocation services to Twitter, enabling users to include their latitude and longitude to any tweet.

Twitter’s funding comes shortly after rival Facebook trumpeted that more than 300 million users use its social network.

Twitter has said internally it hopes to be the first Web service to reach 1 billion users. The company could also buy one or more of the myriad startups that have emerged in the company’s shadow to extend the value of the microblogging services on desktops and mobile phones.

Clint Boulton eWEEK USA 2012. Ziff Davis Enterprise Inc. All Rights Reserved

Share
Published by
Clint Boulton eWEEK USA 2012. Ziff Davis Enterprise Inc. All Rights Reserved

Recent Posts

Senators Ask Biden To Extend TikTok Ban Deadline

Two US senators ask president Joe Biden to delay TikTok ban by 90 days after…

10 mins ago

Journalism Group Calls On Apple To Remove AI Feature

Reporters Without Borders calls on Apple to remove AI notification summaries feature after it generates…

40 mins ago

North Koreans Stole $1.34bn In Crypto This Year

North Korea-liked hackers have stolen a record $1.34bn in cryptocurrency so far this year, as…

1 hour ago

Craig Wright Sentenced For Contempt Of Court

Suspended prison sentence for Craig Wright for “flagrant breach” of court order, after his false…

3 days ago

El Salvador To Sell Or Discontinue Bitcoin Wallet, After IMF Deal

Cash-strapped south American country agrees to sell or discontinue its national Bitcoin wallet after signing…

3 days ago

UK’s ICO Labels Google ‘Irresponsible’ For Tracking Change

Google's change will allow advertisers to track customers' digital “fingerprints”, but UK data protection watchdog…

3 days ago