Twitter files for IPO, hopes to raise $1 billion or more

Twitter, the popular micro blogging site, has officially filed for an IPO. Through their form S-1, which highlights your financial status with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Twitter noted they wish to trade publicly as TWTR, and had some potentially alarming financial statistics.

They boast a user base of 100 million daily users, and 218 million monthly users. The site sees 500 million tweets daily, and touts 168 million mobile users monthly. Those are all rounded numbers, as Twitter only offers averages for mobile and daily use based on overall monthly numbers.

While Twitter is reported to offer themselves up for $28-30/share — and offer 50 to 55 million shares — the goal is to raise about $1 billion for the company. As some wonder why Twitter would go public after the more popular Facebook had such troubles meeting demands, the issue may be more cut and dry than Facebook’s odd issue with raising capital.

Twitter made $316.9 million in 2012, and $253.6 million in the first half of 2013. That all fronts a net loss of $79.4 million in 2012, and $69.3 million for the first half of 2013. Twitter notes that their revenue from 2011 to 2012 jumped 198%, and was up 107% in 2013. That stands in contrast to their losses: from 2011 to 2012, net losses fell 38%, but were up 41% from 2012 to 2013.

In September, All Things D reported that CEO Dick Costolo told staff to prepare for a 100% increase in usership. In December 2012, he reported they had 200 million monthly users. According to their numbers, they now have 218 million. Twitter also notes that 65% of their advertising revenue comes from mobile, so this IPO could simply be a numbers game: they need capital, and are not growing at the rate they need to be to continue operating privately. Offering themselves up to hedge fund managers and capital firms may be the best way to ensure we’re tweeting for a long, long time.