The social media giant, Twitter, which has 3,000 employees worldwide with 100 of those based in Ireland, announced last week they would float on the US stock market. Their Irish employees are set for a windfall as shares have been trading between $27 and $29.

Currently on the “grey market” with an estimated 528 million diluted shares, the company’s pre-IPO valuation is about $15 billion.

Many of its Dublin employees' bonuses are based on equity incentives.

The Twitter spokesperson declined to comment on remuneration levels of Twitter employees.

A financial research firm, PrivCo, estimates that Twitter will choose the New York Stock Exchange rather than the NASDAQ Exchange and will set an initial valuation of $15 billion.

Twitter made the announcement at the end of last week while Facebook’s share price rose to $45, above the $38 it launched at last year.

With 200 million active global users, Ireland accounts for just one million of its users. The social media site creates revenue through advertising, via promoted tweets, trends and accounts.

eMarketer, an online research firm, has estimated that Twitter's revenue for 2013 will amount to $580 million. By 2014 they will exceed $900 million.

The micro-blogging social media firm was founded in San Francisco in 2006 by Irish American Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams. Twitter has ballooned into a way for stars to communicate with the public and also a medium by which news of events is spread rapidly. This was exemplified by the Arab Spring uprisings, dubbed the “Twitter Revolution” by some.

Pop sensation Justin Bieber has the most followers with 44,439,243, with Katy Perry (42,629,501) and Lady Gaga (40,097,437) lagging just behind. US President Barack Obama is in fourth place with 36,512,060 followers.

One Direction’s Niall Horan is the Irish person with the most fans boasting of over 14 million followers.