USA Today
Evan Williams
Now that Twitter has a new look, it also has a new CEO.
Dick Costolo, the company's chief operating office for about a year, took over the reins on Monday, leaving co-founder Evan Williams to focus on product strategy.
"Building things is my passion, and I've never been more excited or optimistic about what we have to build," Williams said in a blog post Monday.
Costolo, 47, is an early investor in the 4-year-old privately held company. He was formerly CEO at FeedBurner, an online news feed service acquired by Google for an estimated $100 million in 2007. Later, Costolo was a Google executive.
"Our revenue strategy is already well on its way to success," Costolo said in an e-mail. "My top priority is fulfilling our potential as an independent company. We need to accomplish more the next two years than we've done in the last four."
The appointment of Costolo is the "next logical step" in Twitter's path to profitability and, eventually, a public offering or sale, say tech analysts.
"Evan did a great job of growing the user base," says Marissa Gluck, an analyst at Radar Research. "Now, it's time to bring someone in with experience in advertising to grow revenue."
Twitter has been exploring ways to generate revenue through advertising and e-commerce, she says, so it made sense to promote Costolo and let Williams focus on product development.
During the soft-spoken Williams' two-year stewardship as CEO, Twitter's registered users soared to more than 165 million from 3 million.
In that same time, the number of tweets — short messages posted on the social-media site — grew to 90 million a day from 1.25 million.
Williams' most recent handiwork was the redesign of Twitter.com, the company's home page. The new look has improved video streaming and graphics.
Dick Costolo, the company's chief operating office for about a year, took over the reins on Monday, leaving co-founder Evan Williams to focus on product strategy.
"Building things is my passion, and I've never been more excited or optimistic about what we have to build," Williams said in a blog post Monday.
Costolo, 47, is an early investor in the 4-year-old privately held company. He was formerly CEO at FeedBurner, an online news feed service acquired by Google for an estimated $100 million in 2007. Later, Costolo was a Google executive.
"Our revenue strategy is already well on its way to success," Costolo said in an e-mail. "My top priority is fulfilling our potential as an independent company. We need to accomplish more the next two years than we've done in the last four."
The appointment of Costolo is the "next logical step" in Twitter's path to profitability and, eventually, a public offering or sale, say tech analysts.
"Evan did a great job of growing the user base," says Marissa Gluck, an analyst at Radar Research. "Now, it's time to bring someone in with experience in advertising to grow revenue."
Twitter has been exploring ways to generate revenue through advertising and e-commerce, she says, so it made sense to promote Costolo and let Williams focus on product development.
During the soft-spoken Williams' two-year stewardship as CEO, Twitter's registered users soared to more than 165 million from 3 million.
In that same time, the number of tweets — short messages posted on the social-media site — grew to 90 million a day from 1.25 million.
Williams' most recent handiwork was the redesign of Twitter.com, the company's home page. The new look has improved video streaming and graphics.
