0 TO 200 MILLION THE TWITTER STORY

Since its launch fewer than six years ago, Twitter has enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity. Here are some of the key moments in the companys short history.

July 2009

The site passes 50 million unique visitors for the first time.

October 2007 2000

While spending time in his alternate geeky universe, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey sketched out an idea for a real-time, up-to-date, from the road service on a notepad.

In a sign that the tech community had embraced the site, Twitter broke the 500,000 user barrier.

March 2008

June 2010

Just five months later, there were one million worldwide users.

A World Cup match between Japan and Denmark sees 3,282 tweets sent every second.

21 March 2006

Six years later, he sent his first tweet, which read: just setting up my twttr

September 2011 October 2008

The site broaches the Early celebrity adopter Stephen Fry posted his first tweet, saying: Hello Twitterers. Im about to fly to Africa for a new project and will be tweeting whilst Im filming. He now has more than four million followers.

100 million-user barrier

September 2006

Two months after the website launched, Twttr changed its name to Twitter. Thanks to a technology conference in Texas, the number of tweets sent per day soared from 20,000 to 60,000 in the space of a single weekend.

March 2007

March 2012

June 2009

The news of Michael Jacksons death sees 100,000 tweets containing the pop stars name being posted in an hour.

Twitter boasts 10 million British users, while Lady Gaga passes 20 million followers, equivalent to the population of Australia.