Twitter to soar to 400m users by 2018 due to rapid growth in Asia
TWITTER, which has seen its share price collapse over 50 per cent since January due to fears surrounding its slowing user growth, could unlock explosive user growth in Asia by the end of the year, according to a report.
While the number of Twitter users in the US is expected to grow by just 12 per cent this year, its user growth in Asia could soar by 34 per cent, led by booming markets such as India and Indonesia, according to research from eMarketer.
“Large growth rates frequently reflect a small installed base, but not in the cases of these two countries: India and Indonesia will rise to have the third and fourth-largest Twitter populations in the world by the end of 2014, with 18.1m and 15.3m users, respectively – both surpassing the UK for the first time this year for the number of users,” said eMarketer.
Worldwide growth is still expected to slow for Twitter, with growth falling from 24.4 per cent this year to 10.7 per cent by 2018 when the social network approaches 400m users. Last quarter Twitter reported user growth of just six per cent to 255m monthly active users.
Should growth in Asia turn out to be as dramatic as predicted it will be a relief to shareholders, Twitter’s shares have fallen over 50 per cent from a January high of $69, to just $30.51 yesterday.