The continuing growth of Twitter
Posted on Feb 21, 2008 at 18:43 UK time in Communication, Social Networks, Trends, Twitter
An interesting stat posted on the Twitter blog shows which are the top ten countries with the most people using the Twitter social network as determined from Twitter’s public timeline.
That’s how I describe Twitter, incidentally - a social network, not the original descriptor ‘micro blogging tool.’ My perception of Twitter has evolved.
The US is the leading country, no surprise there, with 40%. The #2 did surprise me - Japan at 39%. Then follows Spain at #3 with 11%, the UK at #4 with 10% and the others as you see in the chart.
It’s good to know this but what does it really mean if you want to know some actual numbers? How many Twitter users are there around the world and how do they break down by country?
Luckily, Twitterfacts has those answers and also an indicator of growth.
This chart, from January 2008, shows that the total number of Twitter users (squinting at the chart, it looks like around 750,000) has +/- trebled in about eight months.
Twitterfacts pulls its numbers from Twitdir. And today, some six weeks after Twitterfacts produced the graph, Twitdir says the total number of Twitter uses is 907,884.
So that means the top ten countries, in the chart at the top of the page, looks like this from the number of users point of view:
- USA: 363,153
- Japan: 354,074
- Spain: 99,867
- UK: 90,788
- Brazil: 63,551
- Canada: 63,551
- France: 54,473
- Germany: 54,473
- Italy: 45,394
- Netherlands: 45,394
- Taiwan: 36,315
Make of the numbers what you will but it looks pretty solid.
And pay attention to Twitterfacts who are tracking growth trends - they reckon it will hit the one million mark in total by April 1 this year.
Could be sooner.
[Later] I didn’t spot Twitterfacts’ more recent prediction of growth until after I posted this post - one million users before March 1.
That’s just over a week away. Possible, highly possible.
4 Comment(s)
By
warzabidul on Feb 23, 2008 | Reply
Those are some interesting stats. What interests me is the number of British users. That would help explain why and how twitter meetings are so common in the united Kingdom. what’s more surprising is that relatively few of them appear commonly.
How many people are actively tweeting as opposed to simply registered within countries. London is a great place for twitter meetups and it justifies certain friend’s projects.
This information is interesting anyway.
By
Jaap Stronks on Feb 25, 2008 | Reply
You seem to have some numbers mixed up. The percentages in the international pie chart add up to 100 procent, which is itself 60 percent of the total pie chart (with 40 percent US, 60 percent international).
For example: 39 percent of international users is Japanese. Compared to the US: 39 percent of 60 percent makes 23,4 percent of total users coming from Japan. 23,4 per cent of 907.884 is 212,444 users. Same goes for other countries, you should multiply all numbers (except the US) by 0,6.
By
chantelle olvier on Feb 25, 2008 | Reply
Yes…Twitter is a social network. Moreover, it is a network that no one understands just yet and, in my field I meet someone everyday trying to build on top of it desperately:
http://www.walrusmagazine.com/blogs/2008/02/25/the-oscars-i-am-a-d-list-weblebrity/
By
neville on Feb 27, 2008 | Reply
Thanks for pointing that out, Jaap. You’re right of course. Luckily I didn’t focus the content wholly on the percentages
That’s very neat, Chantelle, tweeting the Oscars. Another example of what anyone can do with this communication tool aka social network.