Top 10 Twitter stats on its sixth birthday

When a company called Obvious was working on a new micro-blogging platform back in 2006, little would they've known that this platform would one day play a key role in preserving freedom of speech in several countries.

Twitter has come to represent many things to many people. While some get high on "mentions" by their favourite celebrities, others have used it to for more serious roles like organizing protests against authoritarian regimes. When a few tried to pin the blame for London riots on Twitter, others used Twitter to organize cleanup activities in the riot affected neighbourhoods.

As Twitter turns six, we take a look at some key stats that have made the Twitter story such an engrossing one.

1. Over 60 billion tweets were sent out in all of 2011.

2. The record for maximum tweets per second as of date is 25,088, set during screening of Japanese movie "Castle in the Sky" in December 2011. (Source: Twitter)

On Dec 9, the television screening in Japan of Hayao Miyazaki's "Castle in the Sky" led to 25,088 Tweets per second - a new Twitter record.

-- Twitter Comms (@twittercomms) December 14, 2011

3. Twitter is the 9th most popular site in the world. (Source: Alexa)

4. Twitter started with a 5 member team in 2006, it now has 835 employees.

5. It took 3 years, 2 months and 1 day to hit the first billion tweets. It now takes less than 3 days to clock that many.

6. Lady Gaga (@LadyGaga) has over 21 million followers on Twitter, making her the most "followed" user. Barack Obama (@BarackObama) is by far the most popular politician on Twitter (8th overall), with over 13 million followers. YouTube (@YouTube) is the most popular brand on Twitter with 10 million followers, ahead of Twitter itself which is at 8 million.

7. The most popular Indian on Twitter as of date is none other than Amitabh Bachchan (@srbachchan) with over 2.3 million followers.

8. The most prolific user on Twitter is @Yougakudan_00, a 21-year Japanese boy who enjoys "anime/ manga, gaming and programming", who has over 36 million tweets to his credit! That beats the next user by the small matter of 30 million tweets! (Source: Twitter Counter)

9. The most retweeted tweet of all times is this particular tweet by @Wendys:

RT for a good cause. Each retweet sends 50c to help kids in foster care. #TreatItFwd

- Wendy's (@Wendys) June 15, 2011
The tweet raised $50,000 for the cause, so it's safe to assume it got 100,000 retweets! (Source: Twitter)

10. Twitter is now available in 28 different languages around the world with Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu being the latest languages added.