Twitter now has in excess of 105m users and is adding 300,000 new users a day, the company said as it outlined new business initiatives. The company says it is now focusing on generating cash.
Twitter drew 180m monthly unique visitors to its site in March.
Co-founder Biz Stone says the company is not focusing on an IPO plan at present but is keen to bring various advertising and business services to fruition.
The company in recent days launched its advertising service, which has signed up five advertisers so far. Last week, the company launched a Twitter app for iPhone.
Among the new services being launched is Twitter Journalism, a collection of tips and how-tos from Craig Kanalley, traffic and trends editor at Huffington Post and creator of Breaking Tweets.
Archived tweets at US Library of Congress
The company has also decided to donate all tweets that it considers worthy of preservation to the US Library of Congress. It said that 55m tweets a day are sent to Twitter and that number is climbing sharply.
“Over the years, tweets have become part of significant global events around the world — from historic elections to devastating disasters. It is our pleasure to donate access to the entire archive of public Tweets to the Library of Congress for preservation and research,” the company said.
Significantly for the business world, Twitter has unveiled an @anywhere service. The idea is that web users will be able to engage with existing Twitter features from all of their favourite sites. “Today, we’re happy to announce this service is live and ready for anyone who wants to build a little Twitter into their online experience.
“Our friends at Foursquare call @anywhere ‘aggressively simple.’ Other partners like Amazon are excited that customers can ‘conveniently follow suggested Twitter accounts without ever leaving’ the shopping experience. Bing implements the new tools so users can ‘seamlessly interact with Twitter.’ The Huffington Post already went all-out and built a Twitter edition and the WSJ.com told us they hope @anywhere ‘will help us connect readers with the broader story.’
“Citysearch says that @anywhere ‘will help our users get a complete real-time snapshot of a merchant and, when they’d like, engage that merchant via Twitter directly from our site’. And, in the UK, the Guardian is using @anywhere to innovatively connect readers with those running for public office.
“Now, from within our pages you can ask questions of your prospective parliamentary candidates and of our journalists,” the Guardian said. “This is a clear indication of how we’re trying to lower barriers between our audience and those who hold power or seek to hold office, and between our readers and our journalists.”
The full list of sites who have been working on @anywhere implementations pre-public launch include AdAge, Amazon, Bing, Citysearch, Digg, Disqus, eBay, Foursquare, Gawker, Google, Gowalla, the Guardian, the Huffington Post, Hunch, Mashable, Meebo, MSNBC.com, the New York Times, Salesforce.com, WSJ.com, Yahoo!, and YouTube.
By John Kennedy
Photo: Twitter drew 180m monthly unique visitors to its site last month
