20 tweetable facts about Twitter's IPO

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.

(Also see: Twitter tweets its IPO process is underway)

Here are some quick facts about Twitter in 140 characters or less, the limit of tweets.

1. MT (at)Twitter We've confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO.

2. (hash)FunFact: In the first hour of (at)Twitter sending that IPO announcement tweet, 7,872 people retweeted the message.

3. According to (at)APStylebook: "The verb is to tweet, tweeted. A Twitter message is known as a tweet."

4. The company was founded 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Evan Williams. Their handles: (at)Jack, (at)Biz and (at)Ev

5. First tweet by (at)Jack was "just setting up my twttr" on March 21, 2006, at 3:50 p.m.

6. Dorsey went on to create (at)Square, a system for paying for coffee, goods through phones.

7. Twitter soared to popularity in 2007 at the South By Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, Texas. (hash)sxswinteractive (hash)Austin (hash)BBQ

8. Three years, two months and one day: The time it took from the first tweet to the billionth tweet. (hash)CoolStat

9. Users on (at)Twitter: More than 200 million. (at)Facebook has 1.16 billion. That's nearly six times as many. (hash)QuickMath

10. 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 (at)smfrogers

11. The public offering comes at a time of heightened investor interest in the IPO market - 131 IPOs have priced so far this year.

12. Is (at)Twitter trying to avoid (at)Facebook's May 2012 IPO (hash)fail? Well, company is keeping details secret for now. (hash)TwitterIPO

13. The company hasn't said if it makes a profit or how much revenue it takes in. (hash)FadOrFuture? Wonder if (at)WarrenBuffett will buy stock.

14. Most of Twitter's revenue comes from advertising. (at)eMarketer estimates $582.8 million this year, up from $288.3 million in 2012.

15. 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.

16. 2013 (hash)Superbowl performance by (at)Beyonce had 268 million tweets per minute, more than any other event in past two years.

17. Not everybody on (at)Twitter is who they claim to be. (at)United Airlines CEO Jeff Smisek has to put up with (at)FakeUnitedJeff

18. Sometimes even missing zoo animals get their own Twitter accounts. And they can be funny. Just read (at)BronxZoosCobra

19. Trying to find (hash)Religion? More than 500,000 people look no further than (at)Jesus who describes himself in Twitter as "Carpenter, Healer, God."

20. But 2.2 million (hash)HarryPotter fans follow (at)Lord-Voldemort7, The Dark Lord.