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Twitter is on track to hit five billion tweets this year after the microblogging site revealed that, on average, 140 million tweets are posted every day. 

The statistic, which was released to celebrate Twitter's fifth birthday, demonstrates the astonishing growth of the social networking site. This time last year the daily figure stood at 50 million, meaning that it took more than three years for Twitter users to post their first one billion tweets.

An average of 460,000 people - roughly equivalent to the population of Bristol - join the site every day, with celebrity tweeters such as Charlie Sheen (@charliesheen) attracting millions of dedicated Twitter-holics. According to Twitter counter, the number one statistics site powered by Twitter, Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) is the most followed tweeter, attracting more than 8.8 million followers.

As the number of smartphone users increases annually so too does the number of Twitter mobile users, rising dramatically by 182 per cent year on year. With this, the number of third party apps continues to rise, with tens of thousands already available.

In recent news, Twitter has warned, however, that in order to create a service of better quality, it will be necessary for developers of previously existing apps to adhere to firmer terms and conditions.

Twitter has also become a go-to source for up-to-the-minute news, with reports tweeted by the public on the scene often beating the press to a story.

The news about the recent earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan was rapidly tweeted and updated with information by those in Japan at the time of the disaster. On the day itself, 11 March, the number of average daily tweets increased to more than 177 million. The Japanese prime minister's office is now even tweeting updates in English @JPN_PMO.

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