The 9 Ways That Twitter Could Fail, According to Twitter

Twitter has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) to become a public company. This document, called an S-1, is like a cover letter for a young firm trying to impress big institutional investors to buy the stock. But every company is also obligated to enumerate the risks that could destroy it. Twitter's list of risks is long and wide-ranging, from “Maybe we'll stop adding users” to “Maybe China will ban us forever.”

Here are the most significant and fascinating risks the company fesses up to:

1. What if Twitter has simply stopped growing?
2. What if Twitter really never learns how to make serious money?
3. What if Apple or Google design an operating system that ruins the Twitter experience?
4. What if Twitter fails to expand internationally?
5. What if Twitter never manages to turn a profit, at all?
6. What if Twitter suffers the mother of all Fail Whales? Twitter is massive and mostly smooth even during peak hours. But it's still vulnerable to infrastructure breakdowns.
7. What if foreign governments get in the way?
8. What if hackers get in the way?
9. What if Twitter gets in its own way? Throughout its risk section, the company is candid about all the ways it could screw itself: management fails, a short-term focus that compromises long-term vision; a long-term focus on innovation that takes away from quarter-to-quarter revenue growth; or a breach or massive screw-up that loses the trust of marginal users and devastates growth.