Twitter Backer Fred Wilson Hints That It's Profitable

With advertising products that are winning raves, estimated 2012 revenues of $350 million set to nearly triple to $1 billion this year, and nonstop talk of an IPO, that's no longer the question: It's whether Twitter is turning a profit.

And early Twitter investor Fred Wilson has all but settled that one.

"I would bet you that Twitter makes more profit this year than most newspapers," Wilson said in an exchange on Twitter with Los Angeles Times reporter Chris O'Brien.

When O'Brien pressed Wilson for details, Wilson suggested that O'Brien should be asking not whether Twitter will turn a profit this year, but whether it's already currently turning a profit.

Twitter's U.K. subsidiary recently reported a modest profit for its business there.

Business Insider ran some rough calculations in 2011 and figured that the company could be profitable even then. Of course, it's since expanded at breakneck speed, growing past 1,000 employees and moving into a new headquarters on San Francisco's Market Street.

Read O'Brien's story about his Twitter conversation with Wilson >