SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter has trained people to compress their thoughts into 140 characters and has given a public stage to dissidents in Iran and voluble stars such as Shaquille O’Neal. Now, the Internet startup appears to have chalked up another achievement — valuation of $1 billion.
Twitter, which has no discernible revenue, is set to raise about $100 million in new funding, a person briefed on the company’s plans said Thursday. Although the 3 1/2-year-old website is experimenting with running advertisements, founder Biz Stone said this week that the company had no plans to begin widely running ads until 2010.
Twitter “represents a next layer of innovation on the Internet,” said John Borthwick, chief executive of Betaworks. “This investment is happening because it represents a shift.” The New York Times
