Twitter's co-founder said the world's third-largest social-networking platform will aim to get a billion followers, which may help the micro-blogging site compete with Facebook in attracting advertisements.
"Twitter will get to a billion members," Evan Williams, former chief executive officer said in San Francisco yesterday. However, Mr Williams didn't elaborate on a timeframe.
Twitter, whose users send more than 100 million short messages daily, said last month it will open to more advertisers after a successful trial with brands including Starbucks and Coca-Cola.
Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook are increasingly targeting marketers' ad budgets as a main source of revenue as the sites boast millions of users.
"Twitter now is starting to try different types of monetising methods," said Elinor Leung, head of Internet research at CLSA in Hong Kong. "It's the same as YouTube. They have a lot of traffic, and a lot of people using it, but it's not easy to monetise because you don't know who's watching."
Twitter started a trial this year with 30 advertisers, including major movie studios, Nike and Best Buy. Ads are displayed next to the site's search results and by the most popular topics on the right side of the web page.
The benefit for marketers is instant access to target groups of customers with specific messages, offers and discounts.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said earlier this year the world's most popular social-networking site reaching a billion members, or about 14 per cent of the world's population, is "almost a guarantee".
Twitter, with more than 165 million registered users, now ranks third globally among social-networking sites, topping News Corp's MySpace, according to ComScore. Facebook is number one and Windows Live Profile is second.
Mr Williams said the company is planning to offer an advertising service to small businesses on the site, which will compliment ads it offers to companies like Starbucks.
Bloomberg