I don't find the Twitter flat line that surprising. The GUI has severe limitations which fast makes staying on top of the volume unmanageable. 1. It does not contain any way of sorting the people you follow into different RSS streams. 2. The pagination makes it tedious to scan all the the friend updates. 3. The pagination makes it tedious to locate the right friend in the list of people you follow.
Twitter is a great idea, but the execution is not great. At this point I use several different tools to improve the functionality, but the lack of filtering options makes staying on top of it while still finding productive quiet time to work quite unmanageable.
rockbandpromotion
· 4 months ago
I agree with this 100%. Combined with the fact that there are better social networkings such as facebook and myspace, Twitter is going to only appeal to a certain group, mostly of older people, since twitter is mainly promoted on news programs and other media shows. Most younger people will stick with either Facebook or Myspace.
Jack Bremer
· 6 months ago
But if this is tracking pageviews, surely it just proves that the savvy amongst us use apps outside of the twitter.com domain...?
KNAN
· 6 months ago
Jack, you got it spot on! Yes, I'm sure the Compete data doesn't track pageviews from twitter clients.
Stan_Schroeder
· 6 months ago
These stats, if true, can be interpreted in a number of ways. But i doubt that suddenly users started switching from twitter.com to third party apps en masse.
KNAN
· 6 months ago
We need data for adoption of Twitter clients before arriving at any logical conclusion. Not sure about this, but I find that people who use third party apps, are heavy and regular users of Twitter.
Stephen C. Rose
· 6 months ago
Twitter has so many duplicate accounts that it is very hard to know how many are actually using it.
Tedel
· 6 months ago
Well, this seems to proof that Twitter is a great loss of time, like many people state.
Gordon McMilln
· 6 months ago
I'm not a twitter fan. Got on and don't use it. I definitely see it's application, but the hysteria around it is convincing many of our corporate advertising clients to expect more from Twitter than it can deliver. The real question is whether some powerful Twitter apps start to catch fire. We will continue to recommend clients look at Twitter, but frankly, the jury is still out on whether the service is starting to plateau and will have limited, but specific application.
Doubledown Tandino
· 6 months ago
zOMG! shocking! Oprah doesn't tweet a KFC coupon and Ashton has better things to do (like a career or his wife).
Can't wait to see the 20+ articles that come from mashable reporting the steady slope downfall of Twitter over the course of the rest of 2009
Stacy
· 6 months ago
It's probably because there aren't any human beings left to sign up. :)
Egon Wegh
· 6 months ago
O well, who needs growth anyway? Let's improve the quality!
KNAN
· 6 months ago
It can't be true. Otherwise, our photo share application would not have witnessed the boom, which it is enjoying now- http://twitsnaps.com It's one of the fastest growing websites that we have created, and we are enjoying every bit of it :D
Guillaume S.
· 6 months ago
Since hearing last week that 10% of Twitter users create 90% of overall posts (admittedly I don't have a source and am using this as a general indication only), it attests that Twitter may be only a big, fat fad.
Virtual Miss Friday
· 6 months ago
It had to happen sometime...
iamcracks
· 6 months ago
Talk about sensationalising a headline. How there is no mention/caveat/N.B in the article re: 3rd Part Apps not contributing towards the pageviews stats IS pretty poor reporting. There are just more than a few fold who spend all day on Twitter, sans twitter.com. And Mashable, you know this. So why ..?
Stan_Schroeder
· 6 months ago
Comments about third party stats are, unfortunately, misdirected. If you look at compete, quantcast, comScore numbers, Twitter has been growing a lot in the past couple of months. Now, these sites show that this growth has stopped or even reversed. If they aren't taking into account third party stats for May, they haven't been taking them into account for the months before. Stats for third party applications would definitely be interesting to hear (we don't have any current numbers), but all else being equal, you cannot deny the numbers.
lavrusik
· 6 months ago
Agreed. The data is gathering is consistent with the previous months. Sure a lot of people use third party, but I don't think that number has grown tremendously. New users still start out using the Web platform, instead of TweetDeck, etc. The numbers are still showing a slow in growth, and something that we should have expected with all other data being shown: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/is_twitter... and the Nielsen numbers.
gbattle
· 6 months ago
It's amazing how many people, when they smell blood in the water, will attack Twitter's legitimacy due to May's flatline growth according to Compete and Quantcast (1.47% and -6.4% respectively). The legitimacy they should be questioning is analytic services like Compete, Quantcast and Nielsen's ability to track ubiquitous applications where uniques can be generated from browser, mobile browser, SMS, RSS, email, and API calls to power 3rd party version of all of these plus native desktop, mobile applications, injest bridges to Facebook, FriendFeed, every search engine, and even the aggregated social commentary on this page. The consumption rotation from Twitter.com to tools like TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop is well documented. There is no application on the planet with as many integration points and distribution mechanisms as Twitter, so to measure their usage, the analytics companies must innovate at the speed, breadth and depth of of the sprawl. So, if you believe that Compete, Nielsen and Quantcast, with their propreietary methodologies and scoring, can keep up with the transparent and externalized innovation of Twitter with its army of global 3rd party application developers, I submit that innovation not only tests authority, it redefines it.
I guess it's the Google Wave's first slap on Twitter ;-0
krisolin
· 6 months ago
Is this the case of "What Goes Up, Must Come Down."? I don't think so. Maybe just a little breather before the next surge. http://twitter.com/krisolin
Allen Shadow
· 6 months ago
Like coming off a drunk, perhaps the Twitterverse can finally settle into more sober, useful territory.
Ronan McGrogan
· 6 months ago
I'm wondering if that flatline has occurred as people are still not aware of how to best use twitter and it's associated apps, signing up to get an idea as to what all the buzz is about? As for statistics, 55% of those are made up on the spot ;-)
GeorgeB
· 6 months ago
Who would have thought that the thrill of posting what you are doing into the unraveled abyss of threaded conversations and that the 15 seconds of perceived fame would eventually start to dissipate as those interested in doing so (for others who were paying less and less attention) also started to wane? Connectivity is only the start; convergence is the desired end-game.
Convergence - that's what we all hoped for when we came here, 'Collaboration On Purpose' that creates consensus - that spawns initiatives - that create the mutual benefits of equitable representation and equitable remuneration across these 'U-Netted Nations'. When all the social networks begin to inter-operate and enjoy participation in that syndicated community, all their numbers can and will increase. Or at least that is what I for one would prefer (and predict).
Martin Meyer-Gossner
· 6 months ago
It looks like they have cleared up the figures before the Harvard study and the Purewire figures were published... http://bit.ly/zD9IZ - quite surprising this growth death...
Conflict In The Sky
· 6 months ago
is this really shocking? We use twitter, but come on, this is the most overrated site out right now.
Sash
· 6 months ago
Mashable : why the hell are you displaying a scientology banner on your site - lame !
fixator
· 6 months ago
Get adblock or privoxy
rainwebs
· 6 months ago
The real question is: are all these numbers already an indication for a successful business model? If problogger tells me that he did a sales pitch for his new book on Facebook with several 1000s friends and there was no real earning, but in other cases the sales rocked. What does this mean?
hamzadavis
· 6 months ago
Apps/Smapps....This article is only a precursor for twitter apps et all to combine forces since we will ALL be on one platform eventually....
swag
· 6 months ago
Uh oh. Lone basket: some eggs might be cheating on you.
blog364
· 6 months ago
Numbers, numbers, numbers... WITHOUT significant revenue (or a path to it), this numbers mean very little. May be someone can come up with an equation that takes into account: value proposition, # of users, adoption, penetration, "disruptive" force, etc. to be able to "quantify" how much revenue "X" service should be generating. Then we can apply this equation across the board to all Social Networks and see how they REALLY compare!
HotForWords
· 6 months ago
These post that claim a slowdown in Twitter growth are so far off the mark, since I never log on to Twitter.. I use apps. Notice how Twitter doesn't defend themselves.. it's better to grow stealthily!
igruber
· 6 months ago
Calculating Twitter usage should incorporate website statistics from Twitter.com and Twitter API usage.
adult
· 6 months ago
Well, um, with the rise of apps for twitter I rarely sign-in. Most of my followers are using other apps as well to post to Twitter. People are just getting more savvy when it comes to Twitter.
This article screams "alarmist" or "the boat is sinking".
I stopped reading Techcrunch for this B.S. reporting. Don't make me stop reading you as well.
Seems more likely to be that March and April represent a spike from Ashton/CNN and Oprah, while May represents a return to the pre-existing slower-growth trend.
Just eyeballing the chart, that's what it looks like to me: draw a smooth curve forward based on the pre-March numbers, and March and April look out of line, while May looks about right.
CathyWebSavvyPR
· 3 months ago
I agree with you on this one - so much media hype the month before leads to a return to normal growth patters. Also, I wonder if some of these numbers could be Twitter beginning to crack down on spammers and deleting bogus accounts. I doubt that that could account for these kind of numbers, but, it is a factor that has not been mentioned.
Ryan Cunningham
· 6 months ago
Everything has it saturation point not matter product or Fad, but the fact remains twitter has spawned a whole new arena for all internet marketers and socialites alike, it will continue to grow and be used to the max. Twitter is the new wave of internet viral marketing on steroids that's for sure, its the numbers game same as all the rest, although this report is very interesting. To all a great and profitable day. Ryan www.constructmedia.com
Chris
· 6 months ago
Using Quantcast to validate Compete's numbers? Not sure that instills much confidence in the conclusions . What does Hitwise data show?
Faisal Laljee
· 6 months ago
This could be because most of the regular Twitter users end up using clients like Twitterific, Tweet Deck or Nambu.
Dinosaur
· 5 months ago
Me personally, I don't get it. Chat Rooms, shouts and IM's have been around for years. Same with Bulletin Boards, Forums and Blogs. What's the dif? You text somebody's phone to talk to them? Ya gotta phone in your hand...talk!! RSS: Internet Explorer had "Push" channels in IE 4, what's the difference? Yahoo gave you the website they wanted to, Google gives you the ads! Progress?
Sahus
· 5 months ago
I heard that twitter was having an issue with users creating accounts then not re-visiting them. They need to pull people in through reminders or some other method. Plus unlike facebook all my friends under 30 do not use twitter so in simple it says people don't understand it or just don't have don't get tweeting. Users under 30 want to play games, watch videos interact with friends and live chat etc. I can't see twitter following suit.
Sahus
· 5 months ago
I heard that twitter was having an issue with users creating accounts then not re-visiting them. They need to pull people in through reminders or some other method. Plus unlike facebook all my friends under 30 do not use twitter so in simple it says people don't understand it or just don't have don't get tweeting. Users under 30 want to play games, watch videos interact with friends and live chat etc. I can't see twitter following suit.
Mara Lewis
· 5 months ago
Does anyone know what percentage of college students are using Twitter?
Ne
· 5 months ago
This video is better!!!! just see it!!!.....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2oHNj1zbeQ
All Comments
1. It does not contain any way of sorting the people you follow into different RSS streams.
2. The pagination makes it tedious to scan all the the friend updates.
3. The pagination makes it tedious to locate the right friend in the list of people you follow.
Twitter is a great idea, but the execution is not great. At this point I use several different tools to improve the functionality, but the lack of filtering options makes staying on top of it while still finding productive quiet time to work quite unmanageable.
Can't wait to see the 20+ articles that come from mashable reporting the steady slope downfall of Twitter over the course of the rest of 2009
Convergence - that's what we all hoped for when we came here, 'Collaboration On Purpose' that creates consensus - that spawns initiatives - that create the mutual benefits of equitable representation and equitable remuneration across these 'U-Netted Nations'. When all the social networks begin to inter-operate and enjoy participation in that syndicated community, all their numbers can and will increase. Or at least that is what I for one would prefer (and predict).
This article screams "alarmist" or "the boat is sinking".
I stopped reading Techcrunch for this B.S. reporting. Don't make me stop reading you as well.
http://twitter.com/adult
Just eyeballing the chart, that's what it looks like to me: draw a smooth curve forward based on the pre-March numbers, and March and April look out of line, while May looks about right.
To all a great and profitable day. Ryan www.constructmedia.com