by Ross Benes, Digiday

Snapchat and Twitter are trending in opposite directions in the eyes of investors.

Last week, Snapchat’s IPO was speculated to have a $25 billion value. Meanwhile, Twitter’s bidders have backed off. “Twitter has not succeeded in monetizing the platform,” said media analyst Rebecca Lieb. “And Snapchat is the darling of the moment.”

But how did we get to this point? Here are five charts that show why Snapchat is sparking excitement while Twitter inspires indifference.

Ad revenue
Twitter is about twice as old as Snapchat and has been generating revenue far longer than the ephemeral communication app has. But eMarketer projects that Snapchat will quickly catch up. By 2018, it’s projected that Snapchat’s ad revenue will close within a billion dollars of Twitter’s ad revenue. […]

Altimeter Group analyst Brian Solis added that Snapchat has done a better job of “being careful of user experience and commanding a premium for advertising.”

[…] Time spent on platforms

Each platform uses different engagement metrics to drive their agenda. Which is why “engagement numbers are controversial at best,” Solis said.