Twitter used to be growing like a rocket, then it wasn’t. Is it again? New numbers about Twitter’s usage show a clear shift in its user makeup: more international users.
Of course, we only have comparative data, which might raise more questions than it answers, but we need to ask the questions that arise. From a report by Sysomos: 50.8% of unique Twitter users came from the United States in the last months of 2009. This was a large drop from the more than 62% of users that came from the United States in June of 2009.
What does that mean? It all depends on your assumptions. Compete, which measures only US traffic, says that Twitter has flatlined in the States. Fair enough, that means that Twitter is growing internationally. Or, if you think that Twitter has shrunk in the States, the new numbers could show flat growth in the international community.
Best guess? Twitter is still growing in the United States, but has found new engines of growth around the world. Twitter certainly in the anecdotal sense is hardly suffering from any sort of user backlash in terms of use here in the United States. Yes, it’s media-orgasm days are over, but that was inevitable. Twitter is maturing as a product, which does not mean that it is at all mature per se, merely that its initial days of hyper growth are over.
Something that I have noticed among analytics providers is there seems to be a knee-jerk overreaction to changes in traffic momentum. Grow quickly, and it is overblown. Slow down and, and watch your numbers be overly crimped. So, when Compete says this about the US Twitter audience, I am somewhat skeptical.
The good news is that if Twitter is not losing its US audience, then it is finding new users abroad, bringing the startup important and much needed growth.
The biggest international gainers? Brazil, Indonesia, and Germany. The UK and Canada remain strong players. What country is next to catch the Twitter bug?
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