NEW YORK, N.Y. – Twitter has redefined the way we communicate, get news and share tidbits of our lives. It has even been credited with starting a revolution or two. The company, based in San Francisco, announced Thursday that it intends to sell stock to the public for the first time. Naturally, it did it via a tweet.
Here are some quick facts about Twitter in 140 characters or less, the limit of tweets.
— MT @Twitter We’ve confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO.
— #FunFact: In the first hour of @Twitter sending that IPO announcement tweet, 7,872 people retweeted the message.
— According to @APStylebook: “The verb is to tweet, tweeted. A Twitter message is known as a tweet.”
— The company was founded 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Evan Williams. Their handles: @Jack, @Biz and @Ev
— First tweet by @Jack was “just setting up my twttr” on March 21, 2006, at 3:50 p.m.
— Dorsey went on to create @Square, a system for paying for coffee, goods through phones.
— Twitter soared to popularity in 2007 at the South By Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, Texas. #sxswinteractive #Austin #BBQ
— Three years, two months and one day: The time it took from the first tweet to the billionth tweet. #CoolStat
— Users on @Twitter: More than 200 million. @Facebook has 1.16 billion. That’s nearly six times as many. #QuickMath
— A billion tweets are sent every two and a half days. Put another way, that’s three for every man, woman and child in the U.S. via @smfrogers
— The public offering comes at a time of heightened investor interest in the IPO market — 131 IPOs have priced so far this year.
— Is @Twitter trying to avoid @Facebook’s May 2012 IPO #fail? Well, company is keeping details secret for now. #TwitterIPO
— The company hasn’t said if it makes a profit or how much revenue it takes in. #FadOrFuture? Wonder if @WarrenBuffett will buy stock.
— Most of Twitter’s revenue comes from advertising. @eMarketer estimates $582.8 million this year, up from $288.3 million in 2012.
— Compare: In latest quarter, Facebook had $1.6 billion in ad revenue. By 2015, Twitter’s annual ad revenue is expected to hit $1.3 billion.
— 2013 #Superbowl performance by @Beyonce had 268 million tweets per minute, more than any other event in past two years.
— Not everybody on @Twitter is who they claim to be. @United Airlines CEO Jeff Smisek has to put up with @FakeUnitedJeff
— Sometimes even missing zoo animals get their own Twitter accounts. And they can be funny. Just read @BronxZoosCobra
— Trying to find #Religion? More than 500,000 people look no further than @Jesus who describes himself in Twitter as “Carpenter, Healer, God.”
— But 2.2 million #HarryPotter fans follow @Lord_Voldemort7, The Dark Lord.
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With reports from AP Technology Writers Barbara Ortutay and Anick Jesdanun.
Scott Mayerowitz can be reached at http://twitter.com/GlobeTrotScott
