Twitter Battles Increased Error Rates

Service disruptions hit the social networking site Wednesday.

The average number of Twitter messages sent daily has risen to 140 million in the past month, up from 50 million a year earlier, and the increased traffic continues to result in higher error rates that make it difficult for users to access the site. The company reported four instances of “increased error rates” in February, and Wednesday afternoon users complained of more problems, which the company said it was moving quickly to fix. Each time that access to the site is compromised represents lost revenue for Twitter, which is relying increasingly on its site to deliver online advertising. Its prospective advertising capacity helped drive its valuation up to $3.7 billion last December.