The popular social networking site Twitter celebrated its six year birthday yesterday. According to Wikipedia, the very first tweet was sent by the company’s co-founder and executive chairman Jack Dorsey, on 21 March 2006 which read: “just setting up my twttr”.  

After being introduced to the public on 15 July 2006, the micro-blogging site quickly grew in users to encompass a current active user base of 140 million. According to Twitter, these users post over 340 million tweets per day, amounting to more than a billion every three days.

Jack Dorsey tweeted yesterday: “It’s 12:50. Happy 6th Birthday @Twitter. From one tweet to over one billion every three days. I’m so proud of our users and our team.”

According to Social Media Today, the company is as successful in attracting advertisers, as it is in attracting users. Twitter’s projected ad revenue for this year is $259 million, whilst the firm’s projected ad revenue for 2014 is $540 million. The site also stated that eleven Twitter accounts are created every second, which amounts to nearly one million accounts being opened each and every day.

The most followed user on Twitter is Lady Gaga, who currently sports  21 284 352 followers, whilst the most popular brand is Google’s YouTube with its 10 108 954 followers.

In related news, Twitter also recently announced its acquisition of blogging and sharing site Posterous, whilst the firm’s co-founders recently revealed the details behind their latest internet project dubbed Branch, which aims to establish a “new platform for dialogue on the web”.