Most Twitter tweets originating overseas, study finds
Twitter might have started in the United States, but a recent study from Semiocast has found that the company's core user base is mostly overseas.
Semiocast, which recently analyzed 13.5 million tweets, found that 30% of messages on Twitter come from the U.S. The remaining 70% originate in countries around the world.
According to Semiocast, the number of tweets coming from the U.S. still outnumber any individual country. But as a whole, the U.S. is far behind the rest of the world and that trend will likely not change.
Just six weeks after Semiocast found that 50% of all tweets are in English, the research company said that 44% of all tweets are now in English, underscoring a dramatic shift in usage from the U.S. to other countries.
Currently, Japan is the second-largest Twitter user, accounting for 15% of all tweets on the service. It's followed by Brazil with 12% of all messages and Indonesia, which accounts for 10% of all tweets on Twitter. The United Kingdom rounds out the top five with a 6% tweet share.
Semiocast's study provides fascinating insight into the changing Twitter network. Not long ago, the vast majority of tweets were in English and originated from the U.S. But as Twitter's desire for a more international audience has grown, so too has its international audience. And that could help its bottom line.
--Don Reisinger
