Nearly 50% of tweets consumed are from tiny fraction of Twitter users

A mere 20,000 Twitter users steal almost half of the spotlight on Twitter, which now ropes in a billion tweets every week. That means only 0.05% of the social network's user base attracts attention, according to a new Yahoo Research study titled, "Who Says What to Whom on Twitter." Of the 260 million tweets with URLs that the study's authors analyzed, nearly 50% of the tweets consumed were created by what they called "elite" users who fall into four categories: media, celebrities, organizations and bloggers. "Ordinary" users encompass everyone else.