Lady Gaga, First to Reach 20 Million Twitter Followers
March 6, 2012 by admin · Comments Off
Lady Gaga can’t be beat, not even by Justin Bieber. Gaga’s Twitter following has swelled beyond 20 million, a first for any Twitter user. Behind Gaga is Justin Bieber, with a hefty Twitter following count of over 18 million. With varying degrees of snark, professional Twitter rubberneckers have noted that the Biebs posts 10 times as much as Gaga, and still the top spot eludes him.
Last May, Lady Gaga was also the first person to attain 10 million Twitter followers. Approximately two years before that date, Ashton Kutcher famously bested CNN in a widely publicized race to be the first Twitter account with 1 million followers.
To a big extent, Gaga’s millionaire numbers reflect not only on her own massive popularity but also on the exponential growth of Twitter itself — a lot more people are using the service to communicate, follow news, and coordinate massive civil uprisings.
What’s fueling the explosive growth? The fact that social networks of all stripes are becoming mainstream (Facebook is on its way to a billion users) and cellphone users (just about everybody) are switching by the droves to smartphones, which are especially friendly to the succinct postings of the Twitterverse.
Above, a riant Gaga holds up her mic.
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Will Millionaire Lady Gaga Pay More Taxes than Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg?
February 8, 2012 by admin · Comments Off
Thanks to her skills on stage and attention-grabbing personality and ensembles, Lady Gaga’s lavishly loaded. But despite the fantastic account balances the Lady may be viewing during her ATM visits, the fact is that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s rapidly expanding billionaire fortune easily dwarfs the money piles of the “Born This Way” singer. So why is it, then, that if Gaga’s earnings have remained relatively steady, she may end up paying more to the taxman in 2012 than Zuckerberg?
David S. Miller, a celebrated tax lawyer from New York, sorts out some of the issues behind this bizarre state of affairs. In a recently published opinion piece written for the New York Times, Miller even muses about what he calls the “Zuckerberg tax.” He espouses the later as a much better alternative to the “Buffet rule” that’s sort of making the rounds in Washington. Both proposed taxes aim to make the tax burden more equitably distributed among Americans of all income levels. Miller’s imagined Zuckerberg tax would make unsold stock susceptible to income taxation.
In the coming years, Zuckerberg will have plenty of unsold Facebook shares on which he will pay no taxes, but next year at least, he’s expected to make history after paying a tax bill exceeding $2 billion on account of stock maneuverings that he’s expected to make in an effort to secure more control over the company he’s built.
Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/opinion/the-zuckerberg-tax.html
Lady Gaga and Eric Schmidt Invest in Backplane, a New Social Network
June 6, 2011 by admin · Comments Off
The new entertainment- and sports-focused social network in not up and running quite yet, but tidings of its forthcoming existence has just hit the electronic presses courtesy of Evelyn M. Rusli at the New York Times. Rusli tells that Troy Carter, Lady Gaga’s business manager, and his friend (in high-tech places) Matthew Michelsen are the proud founders of Backplane, a new startup set to release an online networking platform very soon.
It seems Carter was inspired by the work that both he and Gaga did for Steve Jobs, which is to say, provide some crucial feedback on Apple’s Ping. Most appropriately, considering Carter’s background in entertainment, Backplane’s platform will focus on enabling a more seamless management of celebrities’ fans across the big online networks. In Carter’s words: “We needed a more concentrated base.” Lady Gaga has a 20 percent stake in the Backplane venture and so far it has raised $1million from investors, among which Google emblem Eric Schmidt is to be found.
Although it is hoped the new network will not prove to be one more means of making fatally clumsy — at least for one’s mayoral ambitions — pseudo-amorous overtures à la Weiner, techies everywhere know that that’s a most unlikely scenario. In any case, as he prepares the big launch of his platform, Troy Carter must still sort out the business of the Lebanese “impounding” of Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” at Beirut’s international airport. At least the album hasn’t been officially banned in that country. Good luck to Carter and good luck to the Lebanese fans.
Read More:
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/a-force-behind-the-gaga-effect/
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/06/lebanon-l.html
Lady Gaga Reaches 10 Million Twitter Followers: Justin Bieber and Barack Obama Follow Closely
May 16, 2011 by admin · Comments Off
Lady Gaga has temporarily achieved Twitter Gold. On Saturday, for the 10th million time, a person on Twitter decided to follow her. At last checking, Lady Gaga’s Twitter account had 10,068,309 followers. Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (Gaga, by her given name) is the first person to reach 10 million followers on Twitter. And not entirely disparately, her two closest pretenders to the top of Twitter’s totem pole are teen singing (and hair) sensation Justin Bieber and 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama.
They, in turn, are followed by Britney Spears and Kim Kardashian at 7,845,366 and 7,498,364, respectively. Lady Gaga also previously bested Bieber to the 9th million follower mark. Twitter itself must be feeling very proud that its site is garnering so much attention and that Twitter rankings are continuously used as an important factor in the calculations for overall online popularity.
It was only about two years ago, in April 2009, that Ashton Kutcher — Charlie Sheen’s much vaunted “replacement” on “Two and a Half Men” — became the first person to amass 1 million followers. Quick Twitter facts of quirk: (1) The man himself, Charlie Sheen, was able to gain 1 million followers in little over a day (2) Beyoncé’s account just reached the same number without her ever having tweeting a thing and (3) Justin Bieber is predicted to take over the top spot later this year.
In recognition of her victory, Lady Gaga had the following to say, via Twitter:
Read More:
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1663919/lady-gaga-twitter.jhtml
http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/lady-gaga-10-million-twitter_b8816
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/05/lady-gaga-twitter-10-million-followers.html
