NEW YORK - Twitter has redefined the way we communicate, get news and share tidbits of our lives. It has even been credited with starting a revolution or two. The company, based in San Francisco, announced Thursday that it intends to sell stock to the public for the first time. Naturally, it did it via a tweet.

Here are some quick facts about Twitter in 140 characters or less, the limit of tweets.

- MT @Twitter We've confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO.

- #FunFact: In the first hour of @Twitter sending that IPO announcement tweet, 7,872 people retweeted the message.

- According to @APStylebook: "The verb is to tweet, tweeted. A Twitter message is known as a tweet."

- The company was founded 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Evan Williams. Their handles: @Jack, @Biz and @Ev

- First tweet by @Jack was "just setting up my twttr" on March 21, 2006, at 3:50 p.m.

- Dorsey went on to create @Square, a system for paying for coffee, goods through phones.

- Twitter soared to popularity in 2007 at the South By Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, Texas. #sxswinteractive #Austin #BBQ

- Three years, two months and one day: The time it took from the first tweet to the billionth tweet. #CoolStat

- Users on @Twitter: More than 200 million. @Facebook has 1.16 billion. That's nearly six times as many. #QuickMath

- A billion tweets are sent every two and a half days. Put another way, that's three for every man, woman and child in the U.S. via @smfrogers

- The public offering comes at a time of heightened investor interest in the IPO market - 131 IPOs have priced so far this year.

- Is @Twitter trying to avoid @Facebook's May 2012 IPO #fail? Well, company is keeping details secret for now. #TwitterIPO

- The company hasn't said if it makes a profit or how much revenue it takes in. #FadOrFuture? Wonder if @WarrenBuffett will buy stock.

- Most of Twitter's revenue comes from advertising. @eMarketer estimates $582.8 million this year, up from $288.3 million in 2012.

- Compare: In latest quarter, Facebook had $1.6 billion in ad revenue. By 2015, Twitter's annual ad revenue is expected to hit $1.3 billion.

- 2013 #Superbowl performance by @Beyonce had 268 million tweets per minute, more than any other event in past two years.

- Not everybody on @Twitter is who they claim to be. @United Airlines CEO Jeff Smisek has to put up with @FakeUnitedJeff

- Sometimes even missing zoo animals get their own Twitter accounts. And they can be funny. Just read @BronxZoosCobra

- Trying to find #Religion? More than 500,000 people look no further than @Jesus who describes himself in Twitter as "Carpenter, Healer, God."