Founder: Twitter 'not for sale'

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone has told an American television show that the microblogging site is not for sale.

Stone gave an unequivocal "no" when asked by ABC's 'The View' host Barbara Walters whether Twitter was on the market.

She mentioned persistent rumours that Google, Microsoft and Apple are interested in buying up the fast-rising company.

"We're just getting started as I've said," he told Walters.

"The company is two years old, we have so much to do, so much product stuff to fix, and so much growing to do."

Twitter - which allows users to send 140-character text messages to their network of 'followers' - was the focus of a $500m takeover bid by social networking behemoth Facebook, which it turned down.

Twitter has rapidly gained in popularity recently, with politicians and celebrities embracing the technology.

There are over seven million users in the US alone.

Actor Ashton Kutcher recently beat CNN to the punch, winning a challenge to be the first Twitter user to reach one million followers.

This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald