How many people do you think are actively tweeting? If you listen to the usual tone of Twitter coverage, you would think it would be dozens of millions.
Actual figure: only between 10 and 15 million people are active on Twitter worldwide.
In perspective, Twitter is valued by its investors at one billion dollars (USD).
The data comes via a report from RJMetrics, a firm that specializes in online numbers keeping. All in all, some 17% of all Twitter accounts tweeted last month out of 75 million total accounts. When you add in the number of spam accounts in existence that always tweet, the percentage of total account being updated by real humans is lower.
Of course, Twitter is still growing. Twitter had 6.2 million new account sign-ups in December, down 20% from its peak level in July 2009. This means that Twitter added in the neighborhood of eight to nine percent of its total accounts in December alone.
On an account level, 25% of Twitter accounts have no followers, and 40% have never sent out a single Tweet. Put in perspective: 30 million Twitter accounts have never been updated. Taken even farther, 80% of all Twitter users have sent out less than ten tweets, say RJMetrics.
Twitter is still growing, but it is hardly as popular as we are led to believe. If you run the numbers on Twitter’s current private market valuation (one billion USD), Twitter is being valued at between $67 and $100 per active user account. If you take the all the accounts on Twitter, including the inactive ones, Twitter is still valued at some $13.33 per account.
Still, even though Twitter is not as large as we perhaps thought, it is still growing rapidly. Also, Twitter has a fanatical userbase that use the site everywhere they go in all their activities. Twitter users are sometimes poked at for their dedication, but Twitter assuredly finds it endearing. Fanatics continue to recruit friends and are the stickiest of users.
At its current rate of 6 million new accounts monthly, Twitter should reach one hundred million accounts in late April or early May. That will be an achievement that very, very few companies can ever claim to have made.
I use Twitter. I'm not a fanatic but I've met a lot of interesting people there.
I completely believe this. Twitter is great, I use it a lot, but there is soooo much hype. Its future is completely uncertain.
We use Twitter as an e-marketing tool to connect with other businesses, get real time answers and opinions, and to even begin conversations with prospects. As a business tool, it just keeps the mind filled with fresh content and “in the know news”. I think the biggest frustration is the feeling of “not getting it” or the “insignificance” that most adopters feel during the beginning of using Twitter.
I bet the same analysis of facebook would produce a very similar needle popping a balloon of numbers hype.
That really is a shocking statistic to see. However, Twitter is my peanut, butter, and jelly. It's even become a feed reader for me over the past month. Plus, it's getting so much coverage by the media and even mentioned on movies now. So, I'm sure it will pick up steam.
A TechCrunch article earlier pointed out that Twitter had a 2,800% increase in mobile usage vs Facebook's 600%. So, it seems very promising.
At this point, i think the uses of Twitter are still in it's infancy – as an employee of an interactive company with 260k+ subscribers we still find people who aren't even on the website bandwagon – as the baby boomer generation shuffles out of the work force and the next gen who's grown up with social media enters it we will see more and more uses for twitter and clones emerge. Twitter is an engine for quick and simple idea and info sharing. If everyone used it and monitored it daily the world economy would greatly suffer from lack of productivity.
Twitter is great no matter how many actual users. By using lists, I have cut my usual email spam down to zero. I use my twitwall as a blog, and I have multiple accounts for different purposes. Sure there are “bots” and spammers, but hey are easy to “block” out. Twitter is an excellent vehicle for both news and fast communication.
This is probably shocking to people in the Media/Marketing/Advertising fields, but is not at all surprising to normal people (defined here as people not in those fields). I work in advertising and use Twitter all the time as do all my advertising friends.
The vast majority of my non-advertising friends, however, have never used Twitter, never plan to, and don't know why news outlets always promote it. They are very happy on Facebook and do not see the point of Twitter. Frankly, I don't blame them a bit.
Twitter always has to be explained to people…multiple times. And it's terribly bad in terms of user interface, so new users have no idea what to do. It's going to take some big changes before the average person actually uses and engages with Twitter.
Interesting discussion here. The way people use Twitter is still in flux. As social networks go, to me it's the closest in feeling to being in a public space, say a bustling market, surrounded by strangers. Some of them are talking, some listening, some are shouting, some are selling, and I can sift through it all to find that which interests me. The rest is a sea of noise.
Twitter is a productivity killer, but interesting. The idea that you can connect with a complete stranger immediately and develop a superficial bond is both unique and enjoyable.
Having others retweet your posts is always a plus. We are social animals and as such we gravitate to social atmospheres and or find places where we can be accepted. That is why I believe Twitter will grow. It gives one an outlet to be accepted and recognized. It really isn't about the content one tweets, it's the acceptance of the messenger.
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An yet…this post hasd been re-tweeted 246 times, allthough it has 26 followers and 47 readers!
This is an typical illustration of what's good/bad about twitter, I suppose.
The similiar analysis of facebook would be, 80% of all facebook users engage in no social activities besides playing facebook games.
Not my case, definetely! I use twitter almost everyday! It´s just a matter of Twitter becoming more multilingual… So far, until last Year, it only spoke English and Japanese – let us see when the app begins to tweet in Portuguese (Brazilian) and other languages. Also, there must be another ways to explain how to use it in the platforms – more than just as it is Today – but especially after the chart presented by Sysomos in the earlier 2010, I am pretty sure that this scenario will change rapidly! Who wants to make a bet?
;P
Not my case, definetely! I use twitter almost everyday! It´s just a matter of Twitter becoming more multilingual…
So far, until last Year, it only spoke English and Japanese – let us see when the app begins to tweet in Portuguese (Brazilian) and other languages. Also, there must be another ways to explain how to use it in the platforms – more than just as it is Today – but especially after the chart presented by Sysomos in the earlier 2010, I am pretty sure that this scenario will change rapidly! Who wants to make a bet?
Not my case, definetely! I use twitter almost everyday! It´s just a matter of Twitter becoming more multilingual… So far, until last Year, it only spoke English and Japanese – let us see when the app begins to tweet in Portuguese (Brazilian) and other languages. Also, there must be another ways to explain how to use it in the platforms – more than just as it is Today – but especially after the chart presented by Sysomos in the earlier 2010, I am pretty sure that this scenario will change rapidly! Who wants to make a bet?
this doesn't seem that surprising ….
As a company that offers a great application tool, we are seeing a growth of entrepreuners/local business owners using twitter to connect to their target market and creating real conversations versus just advertising.