Evan Williams replaced as Twitter CEO in revenue-focused shuffle

by Steven Mostyn - Oct 5 2010, 04:46

In a move designed to enhance its revenue strength, micro-blogging service Twitter has replaced existing chief executive Evan Williams with its more ‘business experienced’ chief operating officer Dick Costolo.

"During his year at twitter, [Dick Costolo] has been a critical leader in devising and executing our revenue efforts, while simultaneously and effectively making the trains run on time in the office," said Williams in a blog post.

Although only serving as Twitter’s chief operating officer for a little over a year, Costolo’s impact has been considerable.

According to a Bloomberg report outlining his successes since September of 2009, 47-year-old Costolo has helped introduce site advertising and also forged valuable licensing deals with industry heavyweights such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo.

In explaining his decision to step down as CEO after just two years in the position, Evan Williams said his day-to-day duties will now include a focus on product strategy.

"I'm extremely proud of how far Twitter has come in the last two years. And, I couldn't be more excited about where our amazing team will take it next," he said.

Williams co-founded Twitter with Biz Stone in 2006 and has watched the hugely popular messaging site gather more than 165 million users.

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