Bill Gates joined the ranks of celebrities on Twitter yesterday, and it would be an understatement to say that the Twitterverse welcomed him warmly: As of Wednesday morning, he had more than 200,000 followers and was adding more every minute.

His first tweet was a simple “Hello World,” followed by news about a letter he is writing for his foundation. The Gates Foundation and charity work, in fact, appear to be the focus of Mr. Gates’s account so far; most of his first posts deal with the crisis unfolding in Haiti after last week’s earthquake. Mr. Gates also seems to enjoy communicating with Twitter’s already established media stars, including Ryan Seacrest and Ashton Kutcher, both of whom welcomed Mr. Gates personally to the social-networking service.

Mr. Gates is so far following 40 Twitter users, from the obvious — Microsoft and the Gates Foundation — to the unexpected — like singer Ashley Tisdale. (Ms. Tisdale performed at the opening of the first Microsoft Store, in Arizona.)

Mashable blogged that “the last time we’ve seen a new Twitter user with this kind of momentum was Oprah,” who now has more than 3 million people following her updates. It remains unclear whether Mr. Gates will reach those levels, but he’s off to a good start: Mashable estimated that he’s been receiving 20,000 followers per hour since his first post was publicized.

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