The Economics Of Fake Twitter Accounts

April 7, 2013 in Daily Bulletin

Nicole Perlroth delved into the world of fake twitter accounts:

  • According to researchers there are up to 20 million fake twitter accounts floating around.
  • The going rate is about $18 for 1,000 followers.
  • This means the overall market for fake Twitter followers could be worth as much as $360 million.
  • The same account can be sold to multiple buyers. In fact buyers prefer this since it makes the fake twitter account look more authentic.
  • Retweets can also be brought. Five a day costs $9 a month.
  • Up to 10,000 new accounts can be created in less than a week.

Read more about Twitter’s efforts to crack down on the practice, how Twitter has a different conceptualization of identity than Facebook, and how the numbers were determined over here. And you can become one of our (very real) Twitter followers over here!

Source: The New York Times