4 ms·
Is Twitter a giant hoax?
Let me start by saying I'm a big fan of Twitter, I use it every day. But something seems really fishy about the service. 44% of twitter accounts have never tweeted once. That's a very large percentage of their user base. I'm sure that some of those accounts are people that like to read others tweets, but almost half of the user-base sounds like an artificial inflation of a publicly traded stock.
- adotjdotr 12y agoI can assure you as a former employee it is not a hoax.
- sp332 12y agoMaybe you're over-estimating people's desire to draw attention to themselves?
- userisme 12y agoTwitter is not a hoax. However, twitter is often exploited by governments / ngos / companies to create astroturf Just an example that comes to mind http://techland.time.com/2011/08/03/report-92-of-newt-gingrichs-twitter-followers-arent-real/ http://techland.time.com/2011/08/03/report-92-of-newt-gingri...
- mtimjones 12y agoOr this one. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2430875/Barack-Obama-19-5m-fake-Twitter-followers.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2430875/Barack-Obama...
- tantalor 12y agoThe total number of accounts is probably meaningless. Instead, look at monthly and daily activity. In 2011, they had 100 million monthly active accounts and 50% logged in daily. http://mashable.com/2011/10/17/twitter-costolo-stats/ http://mashable.com/2011/10/17/twitter-costolo-stats/
- SixSigma 12y agoI'm sure plenty of people, like me, signed up to see what the fuss was about, found it wasn't to my taste / usefulness and now hardly ever visit. However occasionally I end up logging when someone posts a link or someone on TV solicits some engagement - Eurosport, for instance, invite comment during live broadcast - I've had a couple of questions read out on air. So, even though I have done those things I wouldn't describe myself as a Twitter "user".