Twitter publicly filed for its initial public offering on Thursday, revealing financial information that had previously been kept a secret. Its revenue nearly tripled last year, and may pass $500 million in 2013. It is not yet profitable, and it will lose more money this year than last.
As investors scour over these numbers, permit us to make a reductive but irresistible comparison: with Facebook. Wall Street and investors have been waiting for Twitter to go public ever since Facebook did last May.
Also read: Twitter Files for $1B IPO
They are the two biggest names in social media aside from Tumblr, which gave up its dreams of being a public company by selling to one, Yahoo.
Facebook’s IPO was mess, and the company’s share price plummeted in subsequent months. Yet it has now rebounded, and its share price is 10 points higher than it was when it hit the open market.
Also read: Facebook Plunges Below IPO Price
We’ve compared Twitter and Facebook at the time of their IPO, using the numbers from their most recent fiscal year (and not the first six months of 2013). Take a look:
Maximum Amount Sought
Facebook $5 billion
Twitter $1 billion
Monthly Average Users
Facebook 845 million users
Twitter 215 million users
Revenue
Facebook $3.7 billion (2011)
Twitter $316.9 million (2012)
Costs
Facebook $860 million (2011)
Twitter $128.13 million (2012)
Earnings per share
Facebook $0.52 (2011)
Twitter -$0.68 (2012)
Revenue/user
Facebook $4.3
Twitter $1.47