This Feb. 2, 2013, file photo shows a Twitter icon on the display of a smartphone in Berlin. The company tweeted Thursday, Sept. 12, 2013, that it has confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO.By SCOTT MAYEROWITZ
AP Business Writer
NEW YORK - 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.
With reports from AP Technology Writers Barbara Ortutay and Anick Jesdanun.