Don't make Facebook's stupid mistakes, urges key Twitter backer

Don't make Facebook's stupid mistakes, urges key Twitter backer
Twitter: Just don't do a Facebook

Twitter cannot follow Facebook of bragging and greediness ahead of its arrival on the stock market according to the Saudi prince that already owns a big chunk of the micro-blogging platform.

Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal invested a not-insignificant $300 million (c.£188m/AU$321m) in Twitter back in 2011, and he told Reuters that it could well avoid the mistakes of another social network.

"In my discussion with Mr Costolo and the management of Twitter, I cautioned them to be very careful and not to repeat the mistakes of Facebook.

"The lessons are not to brag too much, don't be greedy - I mean price it right and be realistic."

Mobile advances

"There could be a good surprise for the market, where Twitter revenues coming from mobile compared to fixed devices are way ahead of what Facebook came with at the time of the IPO," added Alwaleed.

Facebook's IPO (initial public offering) brought a landslide of criticism, something that Twitter's founders will be desperate to avoid.

Alwaleed's advice will no doubt be heeded, but his statement about mobile revenue is interesting as well.

With mobile devices becoming the dominant computing platform, wringing the most amount of money out of them is key to many big social networks' future.

Patrick Goss

Patrick Goss is the ex-Editor in Chief of TechRadar. Patrick was a passionate and experienced journalist, and he has been lucky enough to work on some of the finest online properties on the planet, building audiences everywhere and establishing himself at the forefront of digital content.  After a long stint as the boss at TechRadar, Patrick has now moved on to a role with Apple, where he is the Managing Editor for the App Store in the UK.