Twitter considers IPO route to growth

Twitter will turn to the stock market if revenues fail to arrive in 2010

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone has stated that he has no intention of selling the company, although he may approach the stock market for funding if the site fails to generate sufficient revenue next year.

Stone made the comments during an interview with reporters in Oxford, saying that 2010 will be the "revenue year".

Twitter has had trouble making money, but has recently started to announce revenue-generating products, such as Account Verification, as well as a new advertising strategy that will be rolled out next year.

The firm has also secured funding. Financial analysts valued Twitter at $1bn (£614m) in September after a $50m (£30m) cash injection from Insight Venture Partners.

Stone confirmed that, if Twitter does not bring in enough profit in 2010, the company would have to consider an initial public offering (IPO) to gain the capital to expand.

"The point is that 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," Stone was reported as saying by Reuters.