

Is Twitter a giant hoax? - mtimjones

Let me start by saying I&#x27;m a big fan of Twitter, I use it every day.  But something seems really fishy about the service.  44% of twitter accounts have never tweeted once.  That&#x27;s a very large percentage of their user base.  I&#x27;m sure that some of those accounts are people that like to read others tweets, but almost half of the user-base sounds like an artificial inflation of a publicly traded stock.
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userisme
Twitter is not a hoax. However, twitter is often exploited by governments /
ngos / companies to create astroturf Just an example that comes to mind
[http://techland.time.com/2011/08/03/report-92-of-newt-
gingri...](http://techland.time.com/2011/08/03/report-92-of-newt-gingrichs-
twitter-followers-arent-real/)

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mtimjones
Or this one.

[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2430875/Barack-
Obama...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2430875/Barack-
Obama-19-5m-fake-Twitter-followers.html)

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tantalor
The total number of accounts is probably meaningless. Instead, look at monthly
and daily activity.

In 2011, they had 100 million monthly active accounts and 50% logged in daily.

[http://mashable.com/2011/10/17/twitter-costolo-
stats/](http://mashable.com/2011/10/17/twitter-costolo-stats/)

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SixSigma
I'm sure plenty of people, like me, signed up to see what the fuss was about,
found it wasn't to my taste / usefulness and now hardly ever visit. However
occasionally I end up logging when someone posts a link or someone on TV
solicits some engagement - Eurosport, for instance, invite comment during live
broadcast - I've had a couple of questions read out on air.

So, even though I have done those things I wouldn't describe myself as a
Twitter "user".

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sp332
Maybe you're over-estimating people's desire to draw attention to themselves?

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adotjdotr
I can assure you as a former employee it is not a hoax.

