Twitter’s IPO, not Facebook’s, will define social – Fortune Tech

Twitter seemingly has no desire to go public. In a host of interviews over the last several months, Twitter’s top executives have said that they don’t see an IPO in the near future. Earlier this year, in fact, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo told Bloomberg that his company’s IPO is still “way out.” He echoed that sentiment in September, telling CNBC in an interview that Twitter has “every hope and belief that we will be a successful — independent — company.”

It will happen some day. Early backers and employees alike are attracted to startups by possibly lucrative equity. An IPO is the best way to cash out. Twitter has received significant venture-capital investment — over $1 billion at last count.  When that happens, expect a different scenario to play out than that what happened with Facebook. Twitter has a more stable business model that combines heavy usage with strong user engagement. The social network is woven into the events of the day, and doesn’t rely so heavily on partners to succeed.

via Twitter’s IPO, not Facebook’s, will define social – Fortune Tech.