Twitter: We Now Have Over 200 Million Accounts (UPDATE)

See update below

Twitter has released a slew of statistics in recent months, from how many tweets are sent per day to the number of accounts created per day.

Here's another one that's been more elusive: the number of users Twitter actually has.

According to Twitter's Katie Stanton, vice president of international strategy, the microblogging service now has over 200 million accounts. It should be noted that those hundreds of millions accounts may not all be active ones and the number of active users may be quite lower--though Twitter hasn't shared that stat.

Speaking at the Guardian's 2011 Activate conference in New York, Stanton shared this statistic and also noted that 70 percent of Twitter's traffic is now coming from outside of the United States.

Stanton also quoted Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, who she said regularly reminders Twitter employees that Twitter is "not a triumph of technology" but a "triumph of humanity.

Read more about Twitter's stats here and check out live updates from Activate here.

UPDATE: Twitter contacted HuffPostTech to correct a report that was previously cited in the article as concluding that .05% of the site's users are responsible for half of all tweets.

Twitter directed HuffPostTech to two tweets from Twitter's Sean Garrett, which noted, "BTW, it's technically impossible for 20K users to create 50% of all Tweets given limit of 1K Tweets/day per user [...]" and added, "even if 20K 'elite users' tweeted every 90 secs for 24 hrs, w/no sleep, it would be just 14% of 140M daily Tweets."

Comments

[David Hanson]

09:54 PM on 04/29/2011

Some TwitSpammers have hundreds of accounts so the real user number is less than the number of accounts. Twitter should tighten up.

[pray4words]

08:57 PM on 04/29/2011

to tweet is so relaxing maybe cause for its success

[deweydecimal]

01:57 PM on 04/29/2011

Unless you are an Iranian rebel or of that ilk, Twitter is R E T A R D E D. I could really care less about the excruciating minutiae of your day or half-formed thoughts expressed in 140 characters or less.

[Reese Mitchell]

11:53 AM on 04/29/2011

Of all the people I know I'm the only active participant in Twitter. Of those friends most don't understand Twitter and how to make it work them. The rest are just simple bottom feeders.
When I give tips on how best to use Twitter I always draw attention, but few, if any, can put those ideas to work for them. And most of the people I know not using Twitter are 20 somethings. There maybe a whole generation of optouters who are racing down a road to a bitter old age.

[redyst]

01:07 PM on 04/29/2011

I'm part of the 20 something demographic and many of my peers aren't on, or active on twitter. When i ask, I usually hear "Twitter is for marketing" and the conversation ends there, despite my points that indicate otherwise.

[Laura Stamps Novelist]

05:10 PM on 04/29/2011

I agree with you. Twitter ROCKS! It is the base of my social media strategy and where the largest majority of my sales come from. In fact I've been on Twitter for the last hour, replying nonstop to tweeters about my latest vampire erotica novel as they rush to Kindle to buy it.

The funny thing is when I first got on Twitter in 2009 I couldn't understand how it would work for me as a novelist. I read all the biz tips for using Twitter, and they just didn't fit. So I made my own rules and did my own thing, and since 2010 Twitter has a gold mine for me.

Although in my case, 20-somethings are very active on Twitter. Many, many of my readers, fans, and book bloggers are 20-somethings. They make up the largest group of my followers and are avid Twitter addicts just like me.

Thanks for the positive post about Twitter. It truly is a force for sales. But it's hard for people to understand that at first, which may be why so many think it's useless as a marketing tool. The truth is it's a sales dynamo if you work it right and don't spam.

[Julie-Ann Amos]

10:30 PM on 04/28/2011

Ultimately not surprising if the number is accurate. Twitter built on the social networking concept by giving customers what they want - an easy, fast platform to spread information. As this piece (http://www.upyourservice.com/learning-library/customer-service-innovation/to-be-distinctive-be-different) points out, innovation is a pillar for success.