Earlier today, after a recent round of rumours that Twitter was getting closer to securing more capital to expand and develop, information leaked out that the micro-blogging service provider had closed on its third round of financing. The deal is thought to be in the region of $15 million US, an estimation based on a valuation of the San Francisco social media upstart at $80 million. Details surrounding this new funding are expected to become clearer in the near future, with several Venture Capital groups looking to get behind the latest Web 2.0 darling. The smart money is on Spark Capital of Boston, but others are known to have been in talks including Charles River Ventures and existing investors Union Square Ventures.
Twitter is building a formidable reputation in the social networking field, playing on the advantages presented through its niche service which is fiercely supported by its loyal user base. The stripping out of unnecessary and extraneous information often found in blogs and networks such as Facebook and MySpace has created a service that urges its users to get to the point, and do so more regularly.
As Twitter has grown it has amassed an impressive membership, including many of the hopefuls in the current US Presidential elections. The service was also notably used by Los Angeles Fire Department when coordinating the fight against the rampaging wildfires of October 2007.
However, the service side of the business has not been all plain sailing for Twitter recently, with various server outages and this week the service suffered from extreme slow-downs on the website. The lure of Twitter being time specific messages is somewhat let down by lengthy delays to posts going live, but with the wrath of the user base as a constant fear the Twitter team are open with their frustrations.
