The US micro-blogging website Twitter is gaining value and is now worth an estimated $8 billion, according to a report in the New York Times.
The newspaper, citing two people briefed on the matter, said the popular website was in the process of raising $400m in a deal that has provided the latest estimate of its value.
The Wall Street Journal had reported a similar deal on Tuesday, putting the company's valuation at up to $7 billion.
The Times quoted one of its sources as saying that the financing round would be led by DST Global, the investment firm headed by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, and that previous investors, including the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, would also participate.
In December, Twitter received an injection of $200m from investors to help fuel its growth, reportedly giving the San Francisco-based company a valuation of $3.7 billion. That round of financing was led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Twitter has fended off several buyers and has repeatedly said it is not considering going public. Founded in 2006, the company recently announced that Twitter users are sending 200 million tweets a day, up from 65 million a year ago.
