Twitter Is The Fastest Growing Social Platform Globally

On a global scale, Twitter was the fastest-growing social networking site between Q2 2012 and Q1 2013, with the number of its account holders surging 42%.

These are some of the findings revealed by Globalwebindex (GWI) in its Stream Social Q1 2013 report. The results are based on a survey among 31,779 consumers in 31 countries between January and March.

According to the Internet researcher, Twitter saw the most impressive growth among the major social media platforms, with the increase implying that 35% of global web users now have an account for the micro-blogging and social networking service. Facebook, the world’s biggest social network, came second with a 35% uptick in its user base, followed by Google+ with 33%.

More than two in 10 (22%) Twitter users log on to the platform regularly, particularly older consumers, who have become more active than ever on the platform. A total of 79% of people aged between 55 and 64 said that they use Twitter quite often, GWI said.

In terms of user numbers, Facebook remained the largest social platform, having 63% of global Internet users among its account holders, or a total 860 million people. Facebook was again the leader in terms of engagement, hitting a rate of 82%. Next came Twitter and Google+ with engagement rates of some 60%, followed by Pinterest and LinkedIn with around 50%.

One of the drivers behind the rise in social media use is mobile technology, GWI said. Since the first quarter of 2011, the number of Internet users going online via a handset has expanded by 60.3% to 818.4 million across the 31 markets analysed.