Biz Stone says Twitter will not sell, but an IPO is an option

Twitter can suddenly talk about nothing else but revenues. It has to be a sure sign that it is getting serious about how it might make money. Last week it was paid for corporate services and this week Biz Stone says an IPO could be an option.

Co-founder Biz Stone said yesterday that “2010 is really going to be the revenue year. I don’t know if we’re going to be profitable, but we have plenty of time”.

According to Reuters Stone said that selling the company was not an option, but an IPO is something that Twitter would consider.

“We are definitely not interested in selling the company. If an IPO’s the only thing, then sure. But if there is some other way then that would be great too. Maybe some other new way will emerge.” Stone said.

Twitter has plenty of venture capital cash. It raised an additional $100m dollars earlier this year, having previously raised $55m, and is valuated at around $1bn which is something it would doubtless achieve should it float. The interest in that IPO would be huge.

Clearly, it is great having the freedom (and the cash) to grow and develop the company as Twitter has done, but there is a growing imperative evident to generate cash.

Last week Stone spoke about paid-for commercial accounts that would provide corporate users with additional services such as analytics.

It is also looking at other options such as introducing advertising next year, but has given no details of this.

However, Twitter has hinted that it would not appear as traditional online advertising, which is cool as it would be weird to stick an MPU in the middle of the page.

When asked about this yesterday in Oxford he said: “Everyone’s going to love it. It’s going to be amazing.”

Amazing online advertising? Wow, you have to love the confidence and I’m really going to have to see it before I believe it (that’s not to say that there isn’t some very good online advertising out there – there is).

[Twitter]