Eager investors and IPO cynics alike can cool their jets:Twitter CEO Dick Costolo says the company is in no rush to go public. 'We are going to remain private as long as we want,' Costolo told theLos Angeles Times this week in a wide-ranging interview about the state of the Twitter union. 'I like being private for all sorts of reasons. It allows us to think about the business and the way we want to grow it ... as opposed to being beholden to a particular way of growing the business, such as quarter to quarter.' Costolo says the slow lane approach isn't because of any concerns about making money or the health of the company. Half of the Twitter's 140 million active users log in daily, andmobile usage is soaring, according to Costolo. Up to 80 in Saudi Arabia over the past month. And all those mobile users are biting on ads, Costolo says - a promising sign as most observers see the future of the web becoming increasingly mobile. 'I have every confidence the business will scale,' he told theTimes. 'There are already some days when we make more money from mobile than non-mobile.'
Twitter's option for user anonymity - which helps its potential utility as a political tool against repressive governments - could see changes soon, too. The company may begin hiding abusive messages from users who remain hidden without biographical information or profile pictures totroll celebrities. 'It can end up being a place that's easier for people to hide behind hate speech,' Costolo says. 'We have to be thoughtful about all that.' And about Twitter's recent extended downtime, which was itslongest in eight months? Costolo called it 'horrendous, gut wrenching.' Avoiding once-common outages has become increasingly important as Twitter grows in size, popularity and influence. 'It's a metaphor for the entire company,' Costolo says. 'My view is that the company is on its way to being one of the permanent residents of the digital media constellation.' Do you think Twitter has longterm staying power and growth potential - or will it fade as othersocial networks rise? Share your prediction in the comments.
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Read more:http://mashable.com/2012/07/12/twitter-ipo-ceo/ Twitter IPO? Not So Fast, Says Costolo
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