Twitter clocks half-billion users

BIG IN JAPAN: Japan came second accounting for 10.6% of all tweets, making Japanese the second most common language on Twitter after English. — Reuters

Over 500 million people are on micro-blogging site Twitter and Americans and Brazilians are the most connected, according to a study by social media monitor Semiocast.

Twitter surpassed the half-billion mark at the end of June, with the United States accounting for both the most users and largest number of “tweets” or short messages of no more than 140 characters posted on the site.