As reported by The Wall Street Journal, Twitter may soon raise additional funds from investors, after which the company’s market capitalization could reach about $ 7 billion, investors who will participate in the deal are still unknown.

More than 7 months ago, a group of investors led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has invested in Twitter $ 200 million in accordance with the parameters of the deal Twitter was valued at $ 3.7 billion

Over the last month the two other Internet companies – Groupon Inc., The owner of internet service to get discounts, and Zynga Inc., Developer of the popular social networking games, applied for an IPO. The cost of each company at the time of registration of their shares on the stock market may be about $ 20 billion

Twitter, however, chose a different tactic: the company continues to attract private investors, hoping to gain extra time on to better develop its advertising business. Despite the fact that the user base grows Twitter, advertising companies is underdeveloped, and generates far less income than Groupon and Zynga.

Additionally, Twitter is much smaller than its competitors, the number of its employees is just over 500 people.

According to Tony Florence, an analyst at New Enterprise Associates, Twitter «continues to develop its business model,” while remaining “private business development in the period.”

According to estimates research firm eMarketer, advertising revenue from Twitter this year will be $ 150 million compared with $ 45 million in 2010 (most of these funds has been “put into circulation” – the money went to upgrade servers and the expansion of the company). For comparison, the revenue Groupon only in the first quarter of 2011 totaled $ 644.7 million in net loss. Zynga has reported a net profit of $ 91 million on revenue of $ 597 million last year.