Twitter’s growth over the past few years has been nothing short of staggering. And now we’re getting a closer look at just how fast the microblogging service is growing, with Twitter CEO Dick Costolo saying today at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco that they are now processing more than 250 million Tweets … per day. That compares to 100 million Tweets per day at the beginning of the year.
But Costolo and crew aren’t stopping there. Responding to a question at the summit, Costolo said that Twitter will compete against other social networks such as Google + by stressing simplicity.
“We have lofty ambitions,” Costolo said in the interview with Federated Media’s John Battelle. “We want to be part of the fabric over every communication in the world, and we think we can reach every person on the planet.”
Wow. Everyone on the planet? No wonder venture capitalists just placed an $8 billion valuation on the company, another factoid that Costolo confirmed today.
That valuation may be tough for some to stomach, but Twitter is starting to gain traction with its promoted Tweet offering. (In fact, at last week’s TechNW conference, Zaarly co-founder Eric Koester discussed the success that Zaarly had encountered with the marketing vehicle).
In fact, Costolo reportedly said that the promoted Tweet offering is working better than they anticipated. More advertising products will be rolled out in the coming weeks, with eMarketer estimating that the company will generate about $150 million in revenue this year.
Twitter raised $800 million in financing in August.
