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Does Twitter have more upside than Facebook?

Twitter is going to have to show that they can grow their audience and monetize it, may it maybe tapping a much more lucrative user base than Facebook does, says Tom Forte, Managing Director and Senior Analyst with New York-based Telsey Group.Twitter may be tapping a much more lucrative user base than Facebook does, says one analyst.

Tom Forte, Managing Director and Senior Analyst with New York-based Telsey Group was on BNN’s “Business Day” Friday to talk about the impending Twitter IPO.

The comparisons to Facebook’s IPO in May of last year will without doubt dog the San-Francisco-based company for months to come, but Forte says Twitter stacks up favourably against the world’s largest social media site.

“I think if you were to do a quick compare/contrast on where Facebook was when they went public, and where Twitter is today, Facebook had a much more mature user audience and was early stage monetization,” he says. “I think that Twitter has more upside in their audience, but they are also much earlier in their monetization than Facebook was at this point in time.”

Forte says Twitter is going to have to show that they can grow their audience and monetize it, but the company is unique, and the Twitter vs. Facebook debate may not be as lopsided as it seems.

“Others are trying to make themselves more like Twitter,” says Forte, pointing out that Facebook itself just added hashtags to its service. “But I really think Twitter is unique…they are very well positioned. The Telsey Group analyst says it is unlikely Facebook or Linkedin will be able to encroach on Twitter’s territory because they have already carved out a differentiated spot in the social media space.

So the million dollar question. what does Forte think Twitter will come out at, valuation wise?

“It’s not unusual right now for some of these faster growing internet companies to trade at EV/EBITDA (a comparison of a company’s enterprise value to its earnings) valuations north of twenty times,” he says. “If you look at some of the more successful companies like Linkedin, or you look at some of the software-as-a-service companies like Saleforce.com, they’re trading at north of thirty times EV/EBITDA.”

Forte thinks Twitter will be at or near the top end of that group. He adds that the recent performance of Facebook, which is trading at all-time highs after slumping following its IPO, bodes well for Twitter, which will make the majority of its profit from mobile advertising sales.

Facebook’s current EV/EBITDA ratio is 20.59.

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About The Author /

Cantech Letter founder and editor Nick Waddell has lived in five Canadian provinces and is proud of his country's often overlooked contributions to the world of science and technology. Waddell takes a regular shift on the Canadian media circuit, making appearances on CTV, CBC and BNN, and contributing to publications such as Canadian Business and Business Insider.
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One thought on “Does Twitter have more upside than Facebook?

  1. I’ve resisted opening a Twitter account until just this year. The way that I use Twitter is to quickly skim over news that might interest me. I’m not on it to tweet or interact with people, so advertisement becomes just noise for me which I quickly pass over, especially without having a picture to catch my eye.

    My usage for Facebook is quite different in that I casually peruse my friend’s updates, and also posts from pages that I’ve liked, if they should have something that interests me. If there are advertisements or suggested posts that might pertain to me, I may just click on them.

    The question I have to ask then is, does my browsing behavior reflect the median user or an outlier? If it’s median, then I’d have to assume that there probably isn’t a whole lot of ROI for advertisements served on Twitter as compared to Facebook.

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