Bill Gates spends some Idol time on Twitter

Bill Gates tweeted for the first time this morning. Roughly six hours ago, he said this:

@BillGates “Hello World.” Hard at work on my foundation letter — publishing on 1/25.

Bill currently has 58,609 followers. That was at 12.01pm. By the time you read this, that figure will be very, very outdated. Because every time we hit refresh, Bill seems to gain another 100 friends. It’s slowing slightly, but right now, he’s gaining 100 new followers a second.

Bill is currently following 40 people. They include:

• Malaria no more
• Ashley Tisdale. We don’t know who that is either.
• The White House
• Ashton Kutcher
• Rotary
• Queen Rania of Jordan

And of all the people in the Twitterverse — the world leaders, the great thinkers, the tech visionaries — who has the Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist chosen to strike up a conversation with so far?

• Ryan Seacrest

No? Here’s a visual clue:

Ryan is the host of American Idol.

If you feel like blowing your own mind any time this afternoon, just keep hitting refresh on Bill’s followers, and watch the numbers tick over to …  Well, that maths is beyond us.