Bieber's ‘beliebers’ not the best retweeters

Singer Justin Bieber has overtaken President Barack Obama as the most followed person on Twitter but researchers say it does not mean he is the most influential presence on the micro-blogging platform.

According to French mathematicians Mr Obama's 29 million Twitter followers repost his comments more often and for a longer time than Bieber's 37 million followers, giving him effectively a louder microphone than the Canadian pop star.

The estimate is based on an application developed by Paris-based MFG Labs.

This firm, founded by French mathematics professors three years ago, released a beta version of "Where Does My Tweet Go?" earlier this month.

The app measures the range and path a person's posts take to show how far they reach beyond direct subscribers and has drawn the attention of Twitter, which is in talks with MFG on how to use it to quantify the impact of web-based media.

MFG Labs chief operating officer Joachim de Lezardiere said: "There's all this data available on Twitter, Facebook, Google Maps," he said in an interview at MFG's offices in Paris's 9th arrondissement.

“It's dirty data, it's in a raw state. We'll clean it all up.”

MFG uses complex algorithms to sort data to help companies understand customers and advertisers tailor efforts to the audience.

Clients include Time Warner's Warner Bros film studio.

Earlier this week the pop star visited the Amsterdam hiding place of the young Holocaust victim Anne Frank, which has since been turned into a museum.

In comments left in the guest book – which also appeared on the Anne Frank House Facebook page- he said: "Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber."

The comment provoked fierce online criticism of the singer.

The museum said his comment "wasn't very sensible".

Bloomberg / Reuters