Twitter’s early user base was a small San Francisco tech clique

Evidence

The site launched in 2006 and broke into the mainstream in 2008-2009, when user accounts and media attention increased exponentially. For the first two years of its existence, Twitter was used almost exclusively by San Francisco tech workers. By 2009, the bloggers, technologists, and company founders who were its most frequent users had been replaced by musicians, actors, television shows, and news organizations. When I began conducting interviews in 2007, it was possible to have two hundred followers and rank among the top users: the technology had a clubby, insider feel. Popular video blogger Veronica Belmont summed it up: Twitter was very much in the Valley and very much in San Francisco in its early days. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 207

Categorization

• XREF: Useful early-data baseline for the current platform-era reading list; the ‘two hundred followers = top user’ fact is vivid for contrast with today’s micro-celebrity scale. — connects to: The San Francisco tech scene blends startup workers, freelancers, and social media gurus. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 27; The San Francisco tech scene valorized founder wealth over genuinely disruptive cultural products. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 53; Early tech-clique advantage on Twitter eroded once mainstream celebrities arrived — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 208 (+1 more)
• CANDY: Fun fact: in 2007, 200 Twitter followers put you among the top users — a striking micro-celebrity prehistory.