Twitter boasts 100 million users as it plans more ads

THERE'S no stopping Twitter. The micro-blogging website, usually coy about releasing stats, has announced that it now has 100 million active users around the world who generate 230 million tweets a day, which are read by the 400 million unique users that visit the site every month.
 
Dick Costolo, chief executive of the San Francisco-based site, said the number of people who log on at least once a month has jumped more than 80 per cent since the start of the year, and that half of all visitors are using mobile devices such as iPads.
 
The back-slapping announcement was accompanied by the news that the site is about to expand its use of advertising in a bid to finally start making money. Twitter began introducing ads last year, but until now users had to subscribe to the company that is placing the ads to see them. From now on users will see paid-for messages from companies they do not follow.
 
"It's our firm belief that our advertising platform is the only revenue component that we need to have in the market in order to be a huge independent business," said Costolo.
 
But he also appeared to pour cold water on rumours of a stock market flotation, despite optimistic estimates that the company could be worth as much as $5bn. "We want to be able to remain independent, grow the business the way we want to, and not be beholden to public markets until we feel like we want to be," said Costolo.
 
It could be that he is waiting for the site to become even more ubiquitous. Costolo revealed that already 35 of the world's heads of state use Twitter, 40 per cent of British MPs have an account, 84 per cent of US state governors are tweeters and that almost half the world's religious leaders, including the Pope and Dalai Lama, are on the site.
 
Entertainers have been flocking to the site, too. Twitter claims that 87 of Billboard's Top 100 musicians of 2010 are active on the site, and the top 50 most popular TV shows in America all have accounts.
 
Certainly the site's growth is showing no signs of slowing. Last week the news that Beyonce was pregnant set a new record for the highest number of tweets posted per second. There were almost 9,000 tweets sent every second about the pop singer after she unveiled her baby bump at the VMA awards. The previous record was set during the women's football World Cup final this summer. ·