It may have an explosive growth chart that makes the Buncefield disaster look like a whoppee cushion going off, but it seems that most Twitterers quickly find better things to do.
New statistics revealed by web metrics company Nielsen Online has discovered that an astonishing 60% of Twitter sign-ups lost all interest in using the microblogging service after just one month.
“People are signing up in their droves”, commented David Martin, a man who regales under the snappy job title of Vice President of Primary Research at Nielson Online.
“But despite the hockey stick growth chart, Twitter faces an uphill battle in making sure these flocks of new users are enticed to return to the nest,” he continued.
Partly blamed for the disappearing droves is the ‘celebrity effect,’ which has seen Twitter attracting curious new users keen to follow the banal daily goings-on of various dull “high profile” schlebs and pop stars.
Unfortunately for Twitter, this curiosity from punters seeking Heat Magazine type thrills seems short lived (we like to think that’s because they’ve discovered how truly boring the vacuous celebs are).
Naturally, commercial interests have been sniffing around Twitter looking for ways to extract some readies from the service, but it’s proving a difficult journey for some.
A recent brave – some may say foolhardy – attempt by the Daily Telegraph to grab itself a piece of the hip Twitter action around the time of the UK Budget failed spectacularly.
The Telegraph decided to publish a live Twitterfall stream of #budget tags on its Budget 2009 homepage, but soon become unstuck as mischievous types and webby ne’er-do-wells promptly turned it into a chortle-fest, complete with Rickrolls and naughty words a-plenty.
The Telegraph promptly pulled the service, with red faces all around.
This thing happens with all popular services – early adopters stick with it, new people come and see what “the flavour of the month” is, and quickly get bored, and eventually the user level reaches a plateau. Same as it ever was!