Twitter Files for $1B IPO

Social media service filed with SEC in secret in September

Twitter is seeking $1 billion in its initial public offering, which was made public on Thursday, several weeks after it broke the news (on its own social media service) that it had filed for an IPO confidentially.

The filing makes public Twitter’s financial data for the first time, showing the company’s revenue dramatically increased from 2010 to now, from $28.28 million in 2010 to $316.93 million in 2012. In the first six months of 2013, the company’s revenue was $253.64 million. The bulk of Twitter’s income comes from advertising, which accounted for almost $270 million of its revenue in 2012 and $221 million in the first six months of 2013.

Also read: Twitter Files for IPO (in Secret)

The company has yet to turn a profit, though its net loss decreased from $129.75 million in 2011 to $79.17 million in 2012. In 2013, however, it’s on track to lose significantly more: It has already lost $68.12 million in the first six months of 2013.

Twitter’s revenue growth has also slowed over the past three years; while it almost quadrupled its take between 2010 and 2011, it tripled between 2011 and 2012, and is on track to less than double that between 2012 and 2013.

The company also boasted 218 million monthly average users at the end of June 2013 — up from June 2012’s 151 million.

Twitter said it plans to use the money raised “for general corporate purposes” and possibly to “acquire businesses, products, services or technologies.”

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