UPDATED 08:57 EDT / AUGUST 29 2013

NEWS

Twitter Preps for IPO with Acquisition and New Conversation UI

Twitter is believed to have been thinking about going public for several months now, but before it can do that, it needs to expand and increase its revenues fast.

To do so, it’s acquired the social tracking TV service Trendrr for an undisclosed amount of cash.

Trendrr competes with Twitter’s own analytics products, and since its contract will soon conclude, the acquisition is a wise move.  Plus, it keeps Trendrr from being acquired by Facebook.

Another reason the Trendrr acquisition that makes sense is that its Twitter-certified product, Curatorr, surfaces and discovers particularly relevant tweets around certain events, putting Twitter on top of potential hot topics.  In addition, it also allows brands and media companies to curate timelines based on its discoveries, which translates into a big advertising advantage and more revenue for Twitter.

Curatorr will “work with media companies, marketers, and display ecosystem partners to create compelling user experiences – continuing to pursue our initial charter of focusing on the real-time aspects of TV and media,” said Trendrr CEO Mark Ghuneim in a blog post.

With Twitter turning into this generation’s TV guide, it’s been bulking up acquisitions that helps it gain an advantage in the social TV angle.  Earlier this year, Twitter acquired Bluefin Labs for an estimated value of $50 and $100 million.

In other Twitter news, its web and mobile apps for Android and iOS have been updated to feature the new conversation lay out.  The new UI sports a blue vertical line so users can easily see conversations between two people they follow.  To view the entire conversation, all you need to do is tap on the tweet to see it and join in if you want to.

Aside from the blue vertical line, Twitter conversations can be easily shared via email even if the recipient is not on Twitter, allow Twitter users to report individual tweets that are deemed offensive. Meanwhile, the Android app for low-end smartphones has been greatly improved to not to take up too much space on the device.

The new conversation feature is gradually rolling out, so if you don’t see it now, check back soon.

This new feature may help Twitter reach the 400 million user mark it’s said to need before it can go public.  But aside from amassing users, it needs a total $1 billion revenue as well.  An eMarketer report stated that Twitter will be able to reach about $580 million in ad revenues this year, but that”s still far from its target.  The report predicted that the company will be able to reach the $1B revenue goal by the end of 2014, which means its IPO will be pushed back until then at the latest.  Unless things change and Twitter learns to leverage its recent acquisitions to up its ad revenue, it won’t be going public anytime soon.


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