Although Twitter’s pervasive popularity and ubiquity have proven unquestionable, many have expressed concern over Twitter’s perceived inability to generate revenue.
Despite early predictions by Twitter’s founders that 2010 will be the year Twitter finally turns a profit, it looks like 2009 will get the profit party started early for one of the world’s largest social networks.
Twitter will receive an estimated $25 million from search deals now in place with both Google and Microsoft.
Taking microblogging into monetary territory for once, Bloomberg News reveals that an agreement has been reached that will make Twitter messages searchable via Google. This deal will bring in an estimated $15 million for Twitter, while a similar deal with Microsoft’s Bing should generate an additional $10 million.
Twitter investors Union Square Ventures and Institutional Venture Partners did not initially comment on last week’s report.
With Twitter co-founder Biz Stone’s stated intention of making his company hugely profitible next year, it’s possible that 2010 may see greater emphasis on business partnerships and advertising mechanisms rather than an IPO, which was originally broached as Twitter’s potential paramount objective for next year. According to Stone: “We want to build our own company that will last for a long time. If an IPO’s the way to do that, then sure. We don’t have it checked off on the calendar yet… But if there is some other way, then that would be great, too. Maybe some other new way will emerge.”
As it stands, Twitter, which raised upwards of $100 million in new funding this year, is now valued at approximately $1 billion.
