Top South African Twitter accounts
Twitter was launched in July 2006, and over the past four years it has grown to become one of the largest social networking platforms globally.
Twitter said in August 2011 that they grew from 65 million tweets a year ago to over 200 million tweets per day currently.
Most popular Twitter accounts
According to Twitter Counter, which provides statistics of Twitter usage across the globe, Lady Gaga is the most popular person on Twitter with over 16-million followers. Lady Gaga is followed by Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Kim Kardashian and Britney Spears.
The first non-entertainment celebrity on the list of US president Barack Obama, ranked as the Twitter user with the sixth highest number of followers.
The following table provides the top Twitter accounts according to followers based on Twitter Counter’s statistics on Friday 9 December 2011.
| Twitter account | Followers |
| @ladygaga | 16,758,555 |
| @justinbieber | 15,235,293 |
| @katyperry | 12,740,928 |
| @KimKardashian | 11,773,973 |
| @britneyspears | 11,668,314 |
| @BarackObama | 11,458,628 |
| @shakira | 11,161,405 |
| @rihanna | 10,449,260 |
| @taylorswift13 | 9,679,983 |
| @selenagomez | 8,846,609 |
In South Africa, celebrities, sports stars and politicians also reign supreme when it comes to the number of Twitter followers.
In South Africa well known comedian Trevor Noah is ranked top with well over 200,000 followers, followed by 5FM DJ Gareth Cliff and cricketer Graeme Smith.
The following table provides the top South African Twitter accounts according to followers based on statistics on Friday 9 December 2011.
| Twitter account | Followers |
| @Trevornoah | 222,004 |
| @GarethCliff | 211,660 |
| @GraemeSmith49 | 151,207 |
| @DJFreshSA | 147,029 |
| @Bonang_M | 131,461 |
| @abdevilliers17 | 121,697 |
| @Julius_S_Malema | 116,602 |
| @dineoranaka | 91,541 |
| @PigSpotter | 88,135 |
| @helenzille | 87,708 |
| @5FM | 82,947 |
| @BryanHabana | 73,668 |
| @Dalesteyn62 | 73,062 |
| @SAPresident | 72,673 |
| @News24 | 71,753 |
| @JohnSmit123 | 71,700 |
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