Twitter tops 100M active users, with 55% active on mobile

Twitter now boasts 100 million active users, defined by CEO Dick Costolo as anyone who logs into the microblogging platform at least once a month. Speaking Thursday during a media event at Twitter's San Francisco offices, Costolo said 50 million users log in every day--in addition, 55 percent of all active users are active on mobile, a 40 percent quarter-over-quarter increase.

Twitter.com now welcomes 400 million unique visitors each month, up from 250 million at the beginning of 2011. "There's still a lot of people who log into Twitter but don't use it every day," Costolo said. In fact, 40 percent of all active users "don't tweet," meaning they haven't tweeted within the past month--Costolo explained that many users simply follow athletes or celebrities, although most non-tweeters eventually move from consumption to production.

Costolo confirmed Twitter is now rolling out Promoted Tweets (sponsored offers and announcements inserted directly into user timelines) to all users, regardless of whether they follow the advertiser in question. He also said the effort will extend across the Twitter platform, including its native mobile apps as well as third-party solutions, enabling the company to generate revenue regardless of where and how consumers are using the service.

Last month, Twitter raised a reported $400 million from DST Global, the investment fund led by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner. Twitter confirmed the DST investment on its blog, calling the funding "significant" but failing to specify the total; Bloomberg reported the $400 million figure, citing confirmation from a source with knowledge of the transaction. Twitter said the funding will support efforts to innovate its platform, increase its staff and expand its services internationally.

Fortune reports Twitter has now completed the second half of the two-stage investment round, which totals $800 million. Twitter earmarked the second $400 million to cash out existing stakeholders; Fortune states that firms including Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital seized the opportunity, while others like Benchmark Capital and Insight Venture Partners opted to hang onto their shares. The combined $800 million round values Twitter at $8 billion--the startup was valued at $3.7 billion in December 2010, when it received $200 million in funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

FierceMobileContent on Twitter
Are you on Twitter? Check us out here. FierceMobiCo on Twitter

For more:
- read this TechCrunch article

Related articles:
Twitter adds aggregated image galleries to user profiles
Twitter lands $400M investment from Russian fund DST Global
Twitter introduces Promoted Tweets into user timelines
Report: Twitter zeroes in on $800M financing round
Twitter smashes traffic record during Women's World Cup final