Twitter Records 145 Million Registered Users
Social networking sites the likes of Facebook and Twitter are constantly growing and adding more users. It’s quite expected. People are attracted to this kind of stuff. The Internet is the perfect place to share your thoughts, various content or random interesting info you’ve run across. Today, Twitter, the service that allows you to “discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world”, has announced that it has recorded over 145 million registered users. Co-Founder Evan Williams also mentioned that an increasing number of people are accessing the social network via mobile devices. You could call this a vicious circle if you wish. As Twitter and Facebook become more popular, more people will want access straight from a mobile phone. As more mobile phones are released with access to the social networking sites and then sold to consumers, more people will discover the advantages of the services and sign up.
In a post on the Twitter blog on Thursday, Williams also mentioned that nearly 300,000 third-party applications were developed around the service. “These new services help people get the most out of Twitter, contributing to user growth and new business opportunities — both of which are critical to the long-term viability of the ecosystem,” Williams said.
Also according to Williams, the number of people using Twitter on mobile devices recorded a 62 percent increase since mid-April this year. About 16 percent of users also end up using Twitter via mobile, compared to about 5 percent recorded in April. Nearly half (46 percent) of active Twitter users regularly go on the service on a mobile device which basically means that most people have discovered the appeal of communicating via social networking sites while on the go. No longer tied to their chairs, in front of their computers, today’s users will tweet from the subway station, corner café or local mall with the help of their smartphones with large touch screens. You’ve probably seen them around, they’re discrete and completely focused on texting regardless of what’s happening around them.
Also in April, Twitter acquired a third-party mobile application called Tweetie. Later on, the app was transformed into the official Twitter app for the iPhone. iPhone users aren’t the only ones to get Twitter on the go. Android users as well as owners of Rim’s Blackberry handset also have specific applications which provide access to the popular service.
To make things even more interesting, Williams also revealed the figures on the top 10 applications people used to access Twitter for the past 30 day. As it turns out, the vast majority (79 percent) of users used the official Twitter website. 14 percent started Tweeting via Twitter’s mobile website whereas eight percent used SMS. Eight percent also Tweeted straight from their iPhones while seven percent used Blackberry handsets to do the same. Also included in the top ten but with a considerably lower percentage of users, were TwitPic (a program which allows the upload of photos), TweetDeck, Echofon, Google Friend Connect and Uber Twitter.
Adding up all the percentages, you might realize that they are more than 100 percent. This is because, according to Twitter, most people often use more than one application to gain access to the service.
