Twitter Inc., the Internet service for short messages, is developing a penchant for keeping its CEOs’ tenures relatively brief, too.
Evan Williams on Monday became the second Twitter co-founder to step aside after a two-year stint, making way for a colleague considered to be better suited for steering the next phase of the company’s rapid growth.
Known simply as (at)Ev on Twitter, Williams intends to focus on product development while continuing to work for the company.
The change in command at the privately held company turns over Twitter’s leadership to Dick Costolo, an early investor who was hired as chief operating officer a year ago.
Since Costolo’s arrival, Twitter has moved into larger offices in San Francisco to accommodate a payroll that has swelled from a few dozen people to about 300 employees.
Costolo, 47, also has played a key role in devising an advertising for Twitter as it tries to make money from an online audience that ballooned from 3 million registered users when Williams became CEO in 2008 to 160 million now.
A recent redesign of the Twitter Web site opened up more opportunities to sell ads without disrupting the stream of messages by creating a new pane for photos, video and other information, including marketing messages. Williams oversaw the Web site’s new look.
In a joint interview Monday, Williams and Costolo said they believed Twitter had reached another critical juncture that called for different leadership skills.
“I have always been more of a product guy and we are entering a new phase of the company where we require a CEO who is more into operations, sales, finance and operations,” Williams said. “And Dick is better at those things than I am.”
Williams, 38, took on the CEO job in 2008 because the company’s board felt he could do a better job expanding Twitter at that stage… Details
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