Twitter hits 100 million user milestone

Twitter

Twitter has passed the 100 million user mark, five years after its inception.

The micro-blogging service has been taken up by people from almost every industry, to either share their thoughts or promote their brand.

IT Pro has a Twitter account. It happens to be the most followed account of any tech trade publication.

"Twitter's global reach gives a voice to people around the world and as far away as the International Space Station," a Twitter blog post read.

"After launching Hindi, Filipino, Malay and Simplified and Traditional Chinese in the coming weeks, Twitter will support 17 different languages."

For the IT department, Twitter brings trouble as well as joy.

Twitter's global reach gives a voice to people around the world.

As many IT security companies have pointed out over the last five years, Twitter provides workers with a portal to share confidential company information, whether intentionally or not.

Some companies have even chosen to ban social networks like Twitter and Facebook altogether.

Research from security firm Clearswift earlier this week found 29 per cent of workers said their companies were clamping down on social media use.

Only half of managers in the UK were found to trust employees' use of sites such as Facebook or Twitter.

Despite business fears over social network use, many recognise its benefits as well. Nearly a third of respondents said their company was planning to invest more in social media this year than last, whilst 48 per cent said their employer thought the benefits of social media outweighed the drawbacks.

And whilst Twitter might be popular, amongst business leaders in Europe LinkedIn is the number one choice.

An IPSOS MORI survey found LinkedIn was the most popular website of all for C-level executives.

Tom Brewster

Tom Brewster is currently an associate editor at Forbes and an award-winning journalist who covers cyber security, surveillance, and privacy. Starting his career at ITPro as a staff writer and working up to a senior staff writer role, Tom has been covering the tech industry for more than ten years and is considered one of the leading journalists in his specialism.

He is a proud alum of the University of Sheffield where he secured an undergraduate degree in English Literature before undertaking a certification from General Assembly in web development.