Tweeting it out: 100m active Tweeple in the Twitterverse

The microblogging website Twitter has disclosed that it has over 100 million active users of its service and said that it would launch services in several languages including Hindi, Filipino and Malay in coming weeks.

In an official blog post published a few hours ago, Twitter said that while 400 million people logged in to the website everyday, 40 per cent of that number did not actively tweet.

In a user breakdown of sorts, Twitter said that their 100 million active users included 35 global heads of state (From @JuliaGillard in Australia to Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, @CFKArgentina ), More than 40 percent of the top global religious leaders (including @DalaiLama and the Pope , who sent his first Tweet in June), athletes, reporters, news services and entertainers. (Eighty-seven percent of Billboard’s Top 100 musicians of 2010 are active on Twitter).

Twitter also made special note of how it is used as a tool for reporters and news agencies all over the world. The famous picture of a plane landing on the Hudson river was first broken on Twitter, as was an indication of the commando strike on al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.

In India Twitter was used as an effective method of getting news out during the 26/11 attacks, where the hashtag #Mumbai was used to great effect. In the five years since its launch, Twitter has come to be regarded as a primary news source for many netizens both in India and abroad. A few days ago Firstpost’s Anant Rangaswami wrote this piece on why Indian newspapers should be worried about Twitter.

Twitter has also left quite an interesting impact on the way we use language. This article notes how many words beginnings with ’tw’ have been spawned because of Twitter. These include ‘Twaigarism’ which India’s contestant for Miss World was accused of when she tweeted out a Wall Street Journal columnists opinions as her own, and ‘Twitterrhoea’ which is self explanatory. And there is of course, ‘Tweeple’,’ Twitterverse’ and ‘Twittiquette’.

In a press meeting with news agencies in San Fransisco, the CEO of Twitter, Dick Costolo said that in January, Twitter had just 250 million monthly visitors. He said that Mobile usage seems to be a significant driver: 55 percent of active users access mobile Twitter products.

With such a massive impact it was hardly surprising that the company succeeded in closing an $800 million funding deal last month, that was named the “largest venture capital investment in history”. However there has been some concern about its lack of a viable business model and how that could impact the future of the company.

But all that is forgotten temporarily in the head rush of its numbers and growth story. As Twitter said in its blog post, right now they “have a 100 million reasons to celebrate”.