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Are users abandoning Twitter? [#Chart of the day]

Author's avatar By Robert Jones 05 Aug, 2016
Essential Essential topic

In its latest update to investors Twitter reported poor user growth now with a total of 313 million monthly active users, the social network added only 3 million users in the past three months and added a total of 11 million new users since the first quarter of 2015.

This chart clearly shows how the growth rate of Twitter is lagging behind that of its  competitors. Instagram recently passing the 500 million user mark while WhatsApp and most definitely Facebook are way ahead in terms of user growth.

chartoftheday_5358_twitters_user_growth_in_perspective_n

  • Data: Company reports; China Internet Watch (compiled by Statista)
  • Source: www.statista.com 

ComScore research has also shown that Facebook dominates both social media by audience and engagement, with 63% of the 18-34 age gap audience accessing the app on a monthly basis and 15 days on average per month that the app has been accessed. Both the ComScore research and the chart above show just how "addictive" Facebook is, especially when compared to other social media. Twitter had just 22% penetration in the ComScore research and an average of just 7.5 days of users accessing the Twitter app. Notably Facebook messenger was in second place and Google Plus was in last place.

So why is Twitter not growing?

Twitter is still important especially for getting news across the world and fast, it just isn't harnessing the the same level of growth that Facebook and Instagram are experiencing. Facebook has a long-term commitment to its user experience and product development; Twitter does seem to be leaning towards the Facebook approach, but it has a big problem with its ad platform. 

 

Author's avatar

By Robert Jones

Robert Jones is a specialist in CRO, UX Research, insight and digital Marketing. He is CRO Analyst at Enjoy Digital. He has a Psychology Masters of Research, has run large digital marketing campaigns to build research panels and worked in insight roles for Vision Critical, ASDA and WhatUsersDo. He also managed all of Smart Insights member resources and published several guides including "How to conduct Persona Research" as well as contributing over 100 blog posts to the Smart Insights blog. When he isn’t working on marketing campaigns he is most likely eating authentic Italian food or planning his next short trip. You can connect with Robert on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter.

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