The scale of the global conversation surrounding the birth of the royal baby was immediately apparent on social media platforms including Twitter, with more than two million mentions of the news.
According to the Twitter blog the peak in the conversation came minutes after the baby's birth was announced by Clarence House with more than 25 300 tweets per minute.
The British monarchy turned to social media for the official announcement of the birth of a royal baby with a series of tweets: "Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a son 4:24pm," followed by "The baby weighs 8lbs 6oz [3.8kg]" and "The Duke of Cambridge was present for the birth."
Historically, the announcement reportedly is made via a wooden easel placed on the palace's forecourt for everyone to see. The announcement is then usually made to the wider public by a reader on radio and an e-mailed statement is sent out.
This time, however, the news was announced via Twitter to about 786 000 followers, which followed after the official posting on the easel in front of the palace. Millions of Twitter users were reached through the announcement from news agencies all over the world, and the official tweet being retweeted 14 949 times.
'Delighted'
The Queen and Prince Philip also used their official Twitter account @BritishMonarchy to share their reaction to the news: "The Queen and Prince Phillip are delighted at the news of the birth of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's baby."
Meanwhile, @ClarenceHouse is asking fans who want to send their congratulations to sign a Google+ card, and has encouraged people to tweet using the hashtag #WelcometotheWorld. It says it read as many as it could and has pulled some into a storify.
Clarence House has also made a @Storify of babies born on the same day as the new prince, who is third in line to the throne.
Prince of Wales, Charles, said yesterday evening: "Both my wife and I are overjoyed at the arrival of my first grandchild. It is an incredibly special moment for William and Catherine and we are so thrilled for them on the birth of their baby boy.
"Grandparenthood is a unique moment in anyone's life, as countless kind people have told me in recent months, so I am enormously proud and happy to be a grandfather for the first time and we are eagerly looking forward to seeing the baby in the near future."
Eager anticipation
The social media platform has been in a frenzy since early yesterday morning when it was announced, on the monarchy's official Twitter accounts (@TheBritishMonarchy and @ClarenceHouse), that Prince William's wife Kate was in labour and had been admitted to hospital.
Clarence House tweeted the official statement: "Her Royal Highness, the Duchess of Cambridge has been admitted this morning to St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London in the early stages of labour. The Duchess travelled by car from Kensington Palace to the Lindo Wing at St. Mary's Hospital with the Duke of Cambridge."
Before the news was officially confirmed, however, it was leaked on Twitter by photographer Jesal Parshotam who tweeted: "@royaltydaily we saw the convoy and the security. She is in. Hopefully everything is smooth, and the pregnancy goes well #RoyalBaby."
Locally, it seems that several South Africans were just as excited about the royal baby's arrival, with celebrities, news agencies and general public tweeting in eager anticipation prior to the official announcement. The platform's top South African trends for the day included #RoyalBaby, #RoyalBabyWatch and Kate Middleton.
However, some were not amused, with tweets like - "If the royal baby is a boy, it'll probably already suffer from male pattern baldness" (@Technikyle), "Kate Middleton was admitted to hospital in early stages of labor, the only labor the royal baby will ever be involved in" (@jamesstyan) and "To tolerate repetitive Royal baby news on your TL today, you have to pretend Kate Middleton is the first woman to have given birth," (@GwenLister1).
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