NASA invited 150 Twitter followers to a “tweetup” to witness the launch of a Jupiter-bound spacecraft.  It’s a testament to the scope and influence of social media and networking nowadays, particularly Twitter. Even President Obama has been seen utilizing Twitter to communicate to the state, and his opponents.

The five-year old, zero to hero social network has grown tremendously, having taken in a “significant” amount funding that could raise its initial $8 billion valuation. A report from SiliconANGLE says that its private valuation could possibly be even higher than Facebook, Zynga and Groupon.  Russian-based and perennial social networking investor Digital Sky Technologies hands Twitter a generous influx of cash, though the amount is still undisclosed as of yesterday.

In their blog, Twitter provided compelling statistics and expansion blueprints via as they complete this major funding.

Statistics:

“Twitter continues to grow around the globe at a record pace. Just a year ago, we delivered 65 million Tweets a day. Today, we generate over 200 million Tweets per day. One year ago, there were approximately 150,000 registered Twitter apps. Now, there are more than one million that connect to Twitter. And our team has grown from 250 people to more than 600 in the past 12 months.”

Funding:

“We’ve come very far in a short time. Now we have an opportunity to expand Twitter’s reach with a significant round of funding led by the venture firm DST Global, with the participation of several of our existing investors. We will use these resources to aggressively innovate, hire more great people and invest in international expansion.”

There’s a skyrocketing number for daily and monthly tweets, consistently validating our virtual addiction to Twitter’s microblog.  And with an expenditure of over 12M in purchasing virtual goods in Facebook, the social networking sphere is hyperactive, presenting potent investment grounds.  Admit it or not, we can go all day just updating G+, Twitter or Facebook. A good part of our lives are already stapled to our online connections and relationships. When was the last time you picked up the phone and said hello to your good friend?  Indeed, the Tamagotchi syndrome is now the prevailing nature of social networks. This scenario creates immeasurable opportunities of magnetizing money, and drawing up new marketing platforms for services like Twitter.

As Twitter grows its ecosystem, however, the microblog faces a new set of potential problems.  Topify has little faith that a growing Twitter cares much for the smaller developer groups that have worked to make Twitter what it is today.  Will Twitter’s disregard for its extended ecosystem drive self-destructive behavior as the social network moves towards new forms of monetization?  Or is this just the byproduct of success?