Out of 140 million users worldwide, Twitter recently revealed that UK active users have peaked at 10 million. However, the most interesting aspect of this statistic is that 8 million of these users accessed Twitter from their mobile phones. The global average for mobile access to the company site is approximately 55%. Therefore, a height of 80% within the UK market represents an unusually high figure.
Why is there such a massive difference in mobile Twitter usage between the UK and the rest of the world? This can be directly attributed to the amount of mobile phone users in Britain, which is significantly higher than the worldwide average. The use of smartphones has skyrocketed in recent times and the UK now boasts usage some 45% higher than the global average. Twitter will celebrate the first anniversary of its London office in June and the UK has now become the fourth largest country in the world in terms of Twitter usage.
The site has proved controversial in the UK, however. Most recently, footballer Ryan Giggs sued the company when tweets alleging he was having an affair appeared on the site. Privacy issues were then brought sharply into focus. Most famously, Twitter was blamed by many for causing the 2011 London riots with users out of control, inciting violence and vandalism.
Despite the controversy, Twitter’s pace in the UK is showing no signs of waning. The company launched its promoted products program in September 2011. Since then, 140 well known brands including Sky, Sony, Vodafone and O2 have utilised Twitter as an advertising platform. Coupled with a growing number of enthusiastic users, the future of this platform in the UK is looking extremely bright.
imagenote: Adrian Pingstone/wikimedia/cc