Twitter passes 300 million users

Micro-blogging site Twitter has reportedly just passed the milestone of 300 million accounts, but only around a sixth are actually considered 'active'.

According to Twitter-tracking website Twopcharts, the website now has around 301,000,000 users and is adding new members at rate of 8.8 per second.

However, the Business Insider puts the actual number of 'active' Twitter accounts, constituting those users that follow eight or more other accounts, at between 50m and 60m. Counting only accounts that follow 32 or more users, and that number falls to around 21m active members.

Last month, Twitter celebrated the fifth anniversary of co-founder Jack Dorsey sending the very first message on the micro-blogging site.

It took three years for Twitter to generate a billion tweets - messages of up to 140 characters - but users now post that number every week.

Twitter has been particularly buoyed by its celebrity users, including Stephen Fry, Richard Bacon, Piers Morgan and US president Barack Obama.

In April, pop superstar Lady GaGa became the first celebrity to amass ten million followers on Twitter, after she overtook Britney Spears last August as the site's most popular star.