Comments on: The Decline of Twitter.com; Not Twitter

By: | delr.dk

| delr.dk — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 15:03:04 +0000

[...] har valgt at droppe Twitter. Den meget snak om faldende brug af tjenesten og et fald i besøgstal på twitter.com – der dog sandsynligvis kan forklares med at folk bruger applikationer [...]

By: What's in Your Twitterr Toolbox? | Twitterrati

What's in Your Twitterr Toolbox? | Twitterrati — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:02:11 +0000

[...] The Decline of Twitter.com; Not Twitter (markevanstech.com) [...]

By: Clark Fredricksen

Clark Fredricksen — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:22:02 +0000

Thanks, Mark.

Uniques will definitely be an important metric to watch. Also important, aside from data convergence around 3rd party usage, will be the traffic on "www.Twitter.com/" (in other words, web traffic to Twitter from non-users, prospects, and pre-login users). Either way, enjoyed reading your well-articulated thoughts on the matter. Looking forward to more discussion in the coming months. Cheers.

By: markevans

markevans — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:05:17 +0000

Clark,

Thanks for the comment. It will be interesting to watch Twitter's unique visitors over the next few months to get a handle on whether growth is slowing or whether it's just a pause in the action.

Mark

By: Clark Fredricksen

Clark Fredricksen — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:42:06 +0000

You've hit the nail on the head, Derek.

I don't think anyone disputes — we at eMarketer certainly don't — that 3rd party app and mobile app usage of Twitter is certainly on the rise. This data does not necessarily suggest a drop in the number of Tweets, nor in overall Twitter usage — just Web traffic, which we know from TweetStats and other studies only is a fraction of Twitter's total reach. In short, the Twitter community is as healthy and thriving as it ever was.

What this data does potentially suggest is that Twitter is not enticing new users as effectively as it was, say, 6 months ago.

While the Twitter community (and I'm definitely part of it) may be tweeting more and more, new users still aren't seeing the value of the service. How many times do people who don't use Twitter ask "Why do I care about what anyone ate for breakfast?" It's simple messaging: Too many people still view Twitter as microblogging, when in reality, it's being used for many things that are far more valuable. Unfortunately, many prospective users, as well as new users, don't get that message right off the bat. This data may indicate that Twitter needs to do a better job of showing those people the real value of the service, beyond "what's happening", if it wants to retain more new users.

By: Debra Howard

Debra Howard — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:05:38 +0000

I don't think I agree, I have found that the majority of people I know haven't discovered it yet or even tapped into its potential. I received info on the Ft Hood shootings several minutes before it was even on the news. Look at how important a role it played in the Iran incident a few weeks back. It was the only news making it out of the country. I think the potential is yet to be discovered. I have been tweeting for just a few months and am just discovering it myself. I tend to be ahead of the crowd on some of this stuff and every teenager I have asked about it does not tweet. That is a whole market not tapped yet. It just needs more time and I think it could definitely grow to facebook proportions.

By: Twitter_Tips

Twitter_Tips — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:54:11 +0000

The "Unique Visitors" metric has never been good at counting people who visit from home, work & on the road—which is to say, most of us. But when users switch to an app, they are less likely to ALSO visit Twitter.com from each of home, work & on the road.

So from being counted 2-3 times, app users drop to being counted more like 1-2 times. However you count it, there is still a significant drop entirely attributable to switching from web usage to app usage

By: markevans

markevans — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:01:07 +0000

Thanks for the insight. Although I'm a Tweetdeck and Seesmic users, I do visit Twitter.com at least once a month to do things such as update my profile and photo, as well as check out new Lists.

Mark

By: Derek

Derek — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:08:54 +0000

The people hardcore enough about Twitter to use Tweetdeck & other clients will visit twitter.com (the website) at least once, if not hundreds of times per month. The graphs you see showing the plateau often show unique visitors, not pageviews, so Twitter (the service) does appear to be having a tough time continuing an upward trend with new users.

By: Josh

Josh — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:31:31 +0000

Keep in mind that traffic is generally measured as "monthly uniques". Even die-hard Tweedeck, Seesmic or Tweetie users are very likely to visit Twiter.com at least once a month; e.g., when clicking on a new follower in an emai notification, updating their Twitter.com background, etc.

Therefore, from a pure traffic measurement perspective, the rise of third party Twitter clients should not have a material impact on Twitter.com's monthly unique traffic. The downtrend is real!