Most popular Twits in South Africa
A comedian, a radio DJ, and a TV star top South Africa’s Twitter rankings, with other celebrities, sports stars and politicians featuring in the top 15.
Twitter was launched in July 2006, and since its humble beginnings has grown to become the social network for many people to “broadcast themselves”.
Twitter celebrated its sixth birthday on 21 March 2012, and at the time announced that it had 140 million users and generated 340 million tweets per day.
More recently the company said that its users fired off more than 15,000 tweets per second when Spain scored its fourth goal in Sunday’s European Championship final, setting a sports-related record on the social networking site.
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 26-million followers. Lady Gaga is followed by Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Rihanna and Britney Spears.
The first non-entertainment (signer) 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 5 July 2012.
| Twitter account | Followers |
| @ladygaga | 26,609,199 |
| @justinbieber | 24,415,252 |
| @katyperry | 22,544,961 |
| @rihanna | 21,918,813 |
| @britneyspears | 18,300,477 |
| @BarackObama | 17,216,735 |
| @shakira | 16,961,805 |
| @taylorswift13 | 15,918,184 |
| @KimKardashian | 15,223,523 |
| @YouTube | 14,162,195 |
Most popular Twitter accounts in South Africa
In South Africa, celebrities, sports stars and politicians also reign supreme when it comes to Twitter followers.
Well known comedian Trevor Noah is ranked top with well over 400,000 followers, followed by 5FM DJ Gareth Cliff, and TV star Bonang Matheba.
The following table provides the top South African Twitter accounts according to followers based on statistics on 5 July 2012.
| Twitter account | Followers |
| @Trevornoah | 418,403 |
| @GarethCliff | 301,690 |
| @Bonang_M | 231,996 |
| @abdevilliers17 | 230,469 |
| @DJFreshSA | 228,162 |
| @GraemeSmith49 | 203,119 |
| @Julius_S_Malema | 192,687 |
| @helenzille | 157,835 |
| @News24 | 152,258 |
| @dineoranaka | 143,169 |
| @Dalesteyn62 | 141,949 |
| @5FM | 141,277 |
| @SAPresident | 136,598 |
| @PigSpotter | 125,185 |
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