Online social networking service Twitter on Monday celebrated its 10th anniversary, gathering many tweeters in Jakarta, including some of the nation's most prominent figures.

During the celebration, they shared their most memorable experiences with the microblogging site using the hashtag #KarenaTwitter (because of Twitter).

Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin, who spoke at the event on Monday evening, said Twitter had allowed him to express himself freely and to talk people who he might never have had an opportunity to meet with otherwise.

Lukman said he signed up to the microblogging site in 2009 and admitted it was his most favorite social media platform.

"After some comparison, Twitter is more enjoyable because of its short word count of only 140 characters and you can have a dialogue and unlimited communication," he said.

The minister added that the social media platform had exposed him to a wealth of information on a daily basis and prompted him to continue to learn new things, be more engaged and enrich his general knowledge.

"Because of Twitter I feel stupid. There are many things I didn't know about. The more people I meet on Twitter, the more I realize that I don't know so many things," Lukman said.

Despite having almost 200,000 followers, the minister said his account was not yet verified.

Singer Andien, who performed at the event, said Twitter had enabled her to get to know her now husband, Irfan Wahyudi. "This is a true story '€“ without Twitter I may not have married my husband," she said.

Andien said she met her husband in 2002 but they did not become close until 2009, after she joined the social media platform. Andien explained that when she lost her cell phone that year, she messaged all her friends on Twitter with her new phone number. Among them was Irfan. After that, she and Irfan started to communicate more often and eventually grew closer. The couple married in May last year.

Twitter Indonesia's business head Roy Simangunsong thanked the Indonesian Twitter community for their continued enthusiasm. He said 77 percent of Twitter users in Indonesia were active daily tweeters. Of that amount, over half send out two tweets per day on average.

Twitter had been witness to many historical moments in Indonesia, Roy said. Today, the wide range of interests and public sentiments can also be seen in the various hashtags that are used, he added.

"From simple things like how they find a mate to gaining the confidence to be able to do business and become part of the everyday world using Twitter, we can see how Twitter has become an important element of Indonesian society," Roy said. (ebf)

Popular

Power begins to return after outage in Indonesia's Bali island

The fragile promise of pluralism, religious freedom in Southeast Asia

Coffee, gold push up inflation to 1.95 percent in April