Twitter shares jump

Shares in the microblogging site, Twitter, have nearly doubled in value in the first few hours of trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

The share price rose above $45, valuing the company at more than $25bn.

Reporter

Mark Gregory

Report

<link type="page"><caption> Listen to the report</caption><url href="http://http-ws.bbc.co.uk.edgesuite.net/mp3/learningenglish/2013/11/bbc_witn_twitter_report_131108_witn_twitter_report_au_bb.mp3" platform="highweb"/></link>

It will go down as one of the most spectacular debuts in the history of financial markets.

Twitter has only been around seven years, has never made a profit and has modest sources of income - yet its shares rose 80% in value the moment it joined the stock market, and then briefly soared even higher than that.

Measured by the stock price in relation to revenues, Twitter's shares are now rated as among the most expensive of any new share issue ever.

It's a big bet that popularity - Twitter already has 230 million users - will eventually lead to massive profits.

Vocabulary

<link type="page"><caption> Listen to the words</caption><url href="http://http-ws.bbc.co.uk.edgesuite.net/mp3/learningenglish/2013/11/bbc_witn_twitter_words_131108_witn_twitter_words_au_bb.mp3" platform="highweb"/></link>

go down: dikenal sebagai, menjadi

debuts: peluncuran untuk pertama kalinya

profit: laba

modest: sedikit

sources of income: sumber pendapatan atau pemasukan

soared: melonjak

revenues: pendapatan yang masuk teratur