The Global Twitter Phenomenon
With the influence of such celebrities as Ashton Kutcher, Oprah Winfrey and even President Barack Obama fueling a Twitter frenzy, this micro-blogging website has been rapidly gaining cyber eminence worldwide since its creation in 2006.
Twitter is a free social networking website which allows its users to read and post updates, which are referred to as “˜tweets’. Tweets are short text-based posts displayed on a user’s profile and sent to those subscribing to their blog, known as followers.
In November of 2008, researchers estimated that Twitter had 4-5 million users. This number puts Twitter as the third most popular social network next to Facebook and Myspace.
Research director at an Internet intelligence gathering firm, Alan Long, describes Twitter’s growth in Australia as being, “…nothing short of phenomenal,” soaring to 1,067% since the onset of this year.
New Zealand has experienced numbers more than tripling since the beginning of the year, and with the website hitting 239 ranks in Singapore – it has now reached a spot among the 50 most popular online destinations in the country.
In a Hitwise findings released Friday, Long was quoted saying, "In other markets, Twitter has a growth pattern similar to the US and UK, highlighting that Twitter is a truly global phenomenon.”
As reported earlier this week, Twitter’s share of online visits in the U.S and Britain had increased by 570% and 621% since the start of this year.
Long noted, “It is interesting to note that large jumps in share of visits have been sparked by a variety of events and news items at different times over the past three months."
Many megastars have been effecting unbelievable results by publicly encouraging people to follow them on Twitter.
Winfrey entered the micro-blogging scene a week ago and was able to gain more than 125,000 followers in just a 24-hour period. She now is estimated as having over 560,000 followers and counting.
Kutcher, a celebrity who made his mark in the series, “That 70′s Show” and husband to actress Demi Moore, competed against news network CNN on April 17 to see who could be the first Twitter user to have one million followers and won.
The most recent celebrity addition to Twitter has been Oprah Winfrey, but this group includes other well-known users such as British actor and playwright, Stephen Fry, NBA star Shaquille O’Neal, actor Hugh Jackman, and 7-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong.
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