Last week, Twitter announced it had put in an application to be placed on the New York Stock Exchange.
As a company worth approximately $10 billion and set to post $583 million in revenue this year, Twitter’s announcement is big news in the business world, according to BBC.
This announcement is drawing a wave of interest because today’s world is largely impacted by social media.
Twitter, the social networking and micro blogging service, was launched in July 2006.
Since its launch, it has attracted users from your siblings and next-door neighbors to President Barack Obama and the Pope.
The site has also been the first to land some major news stories, including the plane that landed on the Hudson River in 2009.
Twitter has 200 million users who send 500 million tweets a day, according to BBC.
The website makes its money by selling advertising space. Specifically, Twitter sells “promoted” tweets from a variety of companies.
Is going on the NYSE a good move for this social media giant?
This depends on how the move will affect Twitter users.
With shares being sold in Twitter, there will be a much bigger drive on advertising sales within the company.
This drive could potentially impact Twitter users negatively.
Right now, promoted tweets are displayed at an adequate level; sometimes you hardly notice them.
Promoted tweets are good marketing tools because they can reach a huge number of people.
However, if more and more promoted tweets are sold, they could begin to aggravate users.
This aggravation could in turn lead to a dropping number of Twitter users.
And with a dropping number of Twitter users, the promoted tweets and advertisements reach fewer people.
There is a fine line here that hopefully won’t be crossed.
Apart from this concern, I see nothing about Twitter’s decision that could negatively impact users.
If anything, the extra money inside the company will lead to new exciting features that will improve an already great social networking site.
The extra funds will allow Twitter to facilitate some new plans, such as global expansion.
Still, the social media giant could see some trouble once it moves onto the NYSE.
Major social media rival Facebook had serious interest for its shares when it first joined the stock market.
But following its decision to go public, Facebook’s share value disappointed investors.
This may be an indicator of how Twitter will fare.
Still, Twitter should remain popular among users even if it does not do well on the NYSE.
The world will be watching as Twitter makes its big step into adulthood.
George Gore Browne is a junior sociology major and a contributing writer at the Daily 49er.
