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 Actor Ashton Kutcher beat mass media giant CNN early Friday morning (April 17) in a challenge to become the first Twitterer to amass one million followers.
Although they both reach the mark, Kutcher (Twitter.com/alpusk) hit the million followers goal about 30 minutes before CNN (Twitter.com/CNNbrk).
Ashton at 2:13 a.m. ET, and CNN at 2:42 a.m. ET.
In a live webstream, as he neared the winning post, the actor -- sporting a upturned Panama hat -- described the race as the "establishment" versus "we the people."
Kutcher was seen on the webstream with a check for $100,000 to be donated to the "Malaria No More"' fund.
"We are over a million. CNN is still trying to get there. And that is just how it goes," Kutcher said, as he popped champagne and his friends screamed. "There are a million people that need to be thanked for this."
He challenged CNN to the Twitter race, saying he would donate 10,000 mosquito bed nets to charity for World Malaria Day in late April if he beat CNN, and 1,000 if he lost. CNN agreed to do the same.
"Victory is ours!!!!!!!!" Kutcher 'tweeted' shortly after winning. CNN conceded defeat. "Ashton Kutcher is first to reach 1 million followers in Twitter contest with CNN," he official CNN read.
"This is David versus Goliath," Kutcher said. "This just shows how people want to get information. It is about us. It means that one man can have a voice as loud as a media network."
Twitter is the latest craze on the net. If you aren't on the micro-blogging network yet, it's a site on which users post 140-character messages that are distributed to groups of followers.
It saw 131% growth in March alone, reports CNN.com, with 9.3 million unique U.S. visitors that month, according to comScore. The group attributes the increase to media attention on the site.
It's gotten so big, Oprah has caught on. The daytime talk show queen is scheduled to send her first "tweet" on Friday (April 17), during her "Oprah Winfrey Show". The exposure should give Twitter.com even more of a spike, as Oprah's large woman following flock to the site.
In addition to Kutcher and Oprah, celebs such as Diddy, Shaquille O'Neal, MC Hammer, and Barack Obama all have Twitter accounts.
BallerStatus.com's official Twitter page can be seen at Twitter.com/BallerStatus.
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