The Social Network is a maze of interaction. Facebook correctly leveraged the best on offer by the internet; Audio, Video & Text. However, many a times the simple pleasures of life are the heightened if shared in a similar manner; by mere text.

Humans need to share news, gossip, tidbits or simple updates of their lives through quick & efficient use of words urged the Twitter founders to come up with a text-only version of Social Media. When created about 6 years earlier by Jack Dorsey, the primary purpose of Twitter was to augment the then SMS service; Hence the limit of 140 characters. However, these limited number of characters soon caught the attention of users & Twitter’s unprecedented growth spree began.

Infographic Labs has been diligent enough to compile a visual map of the phenomenon that is Twitter:

Twitter simplicity is both questioned as well as admired by people who feverishly use it in their everyday lives. Not just them, but brand managers are more effectively using this online grapevine to create buzz about their products, merchandise & more so for their brands. With innovative techniques like Brand Pages, Twitter has somehow mimicked the feature from Facebook, & yet has managed to carve an individual identity for the same.

The Numbers: Twitter has recently managed to attract over 500 Million users, however, more surprisingly, these are not only registered, but they are active as well. While the infographic states 175 Million tweets, recent statistics has pegged the figure at over 340 Million tweets per day. This increase can be attributed to the fact that over 1 Million accounts are added every day.

The High-Point: While Twitter is famous to get the information out quickly, its high points can be considered the super-bowl of this year which spawned 10,245 tweets per second. However, the pinnacle of its usage is the TV Screening of “Castle in the Sky” which propelled 25,088 messages per second.

Surprisingly, these usages have not been the primary causes of the numerous outages except the death of pop-icon Michael Jackson & the euphoria preceding this year’s London Olympics.

The Financial Angle: If one wonders with no visual advertising or intrusive brand messages, how does Twitter make money? Well, Twitter offers ‘Promoted’ Tweets for Brands that subtly push advertising. This formula has been cleverly replicated to the mobile version as well. In June 2011, Twitter announced that it would offer small businesses a Self Serve Advertising System. This sort of automation in buying ad slots lets marketers express their interest in Promoted Tweets, Trends or Accounts, while Twitter’s internal staff focuses on top 500 online advertisers. Additionally the mobile phone has proven to be a big help in promoting location-aware advertising based on the whereabouts of the person accessing Twitter.

All of the efforts combined Twitter managed to surpass 250 Million dollars in revenue. This has given it confidence to set a target, double this before 2014 is out. Additionally, numerous rounds of funding at regular intervals have helped Twitter sail over some difficult times as well.

Has Twitter been helpful to you? Do share your experience.