According to a brokerage firm, Twitter Inc’s share price has to potential to nearly double within its first year as a listed company. In fact, this brokerage has issued a “buy” rating for the company before the service is even public. Analyst Robert Peck believes that the stock will float at around $30 per share, possibly reaching $50 in as little as a year. Peck puts Twitter as the dominant player in the “real time interest graph” which gives them an advantage over others.

Twitter has had a highly successful history, receiving a large amount of its revenue from advertising since 2010, when they started selling it. It broadened its horizons with the acquisition of MoPub and Amplify, and has room for even more expansion, perhaps with the introduction of a product like Google’s AdWords. There are many other areas Twitter could make use of to increase revenue, such are e-commerce and mobile apps.

Analysts have already begun thinking of Twitter as Facebook’s rival. While they are very much alike, twitter has some components that are reminiscent of other social networking services and twitter is a “real-time engagement” platform because of its “faster-paced, real-time conversations”. While Twitter is growing quickly, it is true that currently Facebook, in terms of revenue, users, and revenue per employee is notably higher than that of Twitter. However, the fact that Twitter provides “a live broadcast of news, updates, opinions and other conversations accessed conveniently from a mobile app or desktop websites largely unmatched in immediacy and scale by Facebook or Google” makes them a strong threat.

Sources:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/twitter-v-facebook-rivalry-in-focus-as-ipo-looms-2013-10-07

http://www.bnn.ca/News/2013/10/7/Twitter-gets-buy-rating-even-before-listing.aspx