Twitter is now following Facebook

Seven-year old Twitter, which allows users to send out streams of 140-character messages, has become an path breaking tool for governments, corporations and celebrities seeking to communicate with their audience, and for individuals seeking both news and entertainment.

Now they just filed for an initial public offering with US regulators, meaning it will soon go public to generate enough cash to develop more products, grow in terms of talent and user base and increase advertising initiatives.

For years Chief Executive Dick Costolo has waved off suggestions it intended to go public, saying the company remained flush with cash. But now filed for an IPO confidentially under a 2012 law intended to help emerging corporations with less than $1 billion in revenue go public.

They are now in talks with banks about handling the public stock offering. And their finance chief Mike Gupta who joined Twitter in 2012 will most probably be in change to handle the IPO as he got public stock market experience at Yahoo and Zynga.