Poll Shows Twitter May Not Be An Investor Favorite After All

Image via Flickr/ Rosaura Ochoa

Twitter Inc. is set to launch its IPO on November 7 and the idea of yet another social networking company coming into the public trading sphere has generated tons of hype. The microblogging company will be traded under the ticker symbol (TWTR) on the New York Stock Exchange.

Public Opinion

However, not all of the publicity the company is receiving is positive. In fact, according to a report by the AP and CNBC, polls are showing that more than 50 percent of investors in the 18 to 34 year old age group feel that Twitter Inc. is a bad investment.

The numbers overall are not much more promising for the company as we are now less than 72 hours away from the IPO. The poll indicates that 36 percent of American investors feel like owning Twitter Inc. stock would be a worthwhile investment. However, 47 percent of those polled say that it would not be a safe bet in the current economy. Just prior to Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB)’s IPO last year a similar poll showed that Americans felt that the social network was a great investment, while only 31 percent felt it would not. Twitter is definitely not getting the numbers they want from the poll conducted by the AP.

Twitter Inc. Revenue

Twitter is not only an effective means to post quick thoughts to friends, family, and clients; it’s also a great place to advertise…or is it? Twitter Inc. has not turned a profit since its inception seven years ago, but its revenue is generated through advertisements. Current marketing plans allow companies to pay Twitter to promote tweets to targeted market groups. These are called promoted tweet plans. The company also allows advertisers to promote their accounts for new users to follow.

The problem for Twitter lies in the fact that more than 50 percent of its users say they have never seen any advertising. Out of the 42 percent of the users who claimed to have noticed the ads, only 31 percent said they had clicked on them.

Survey Says?

According to the poll, 20 percent of Americans have a Twitter account. Of those users, nearly 25 percent of them post tweets on a daily basis. Those who take time to read tweets sent by other users totaled 35 percent.

Products and services do gain attention on the microblogging site, as 30 percent of Twitter’s users say they use the site to complain about poor services or faulty products. They also use Twitter to find information about certain products and services.

According to Twitter’s description of itself, the site is the best place to go for real time conversation. However, only 16 percent of the site’s users say they often check Twitter for breaking news. While this number seems low, 44 percent of users say they check the site at least some of the time.

Twitter does not seem to rank as highly in customer opinion as Facebook does. The poll says 19 percent of the participants have a “favorable” view of Twitter. Facebook dominates that number with a whopping 47 percent.

Only 35 percent of Americans believe that Twitter will be a successful company in five years, while 49 percent believe that Facebook will still be successful then.

The poll was conducted by CNBC and the Associated Press via telephone from October 25 to 27. The services were provided by Gfk Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. There were 1,006 adults from the United States involved in the survey, and the results have a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Twitter claims that 77 percent of its 232 million monthly visitors come from outside the United States.

Disclosure: Author represents that he has no position in any stocks mentioned in this article at the time this article was submitted.