Twitter Surpasses 70,000 Apps

Twitter Surpasses 70,000 Apps

March 3, 2010

By David Needle

There are millions of Twitter users, but the number of application developers supporting the microblogging platform isn't too shabby, either.

In an inaugural e-mail newsletter detailing the company's progress, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said some 70,000 registered applications have been created for the platform. Third-party applications do everything from helping users manage their Twitter accounts and lists of followers to finding discussion groups and videos on specific topics.

While often dinged in industry circles for not having a revenue model, Twitter continues to expand as a company: Stone said in his e-mail that registered user accounts have grown more than 1,500 percent while Twitter's number of employees have grown 500 percent.

Company officials have indicated they plan to introduce advertising and other potential revenue streams.

In the meantime, though, Twitter is focusing heavily on its developer community. Stone said the company will hold its first conference next month. The first Chirp conference for Twitter developers is set for April 14-15 in San Francisco.

Recapping the past year, Stone also noted several features that have been added to Twitter, including "the ability to create lists, quickly spread information with a retweet button, and an easier way to activate your mobile phone to work with Twitter over SMS. We also built a new mobile Web site that looks and works much better on smartphones."

source: http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/ent...70000-Apps.htm