Still think Twitter is just a fad?

by Jack Humphrey on Nov 3

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Image by VitiligoCover via Flickr

It is tempting to blow off new social media applications as fads.  When you’ve been “hurt” by the promise of a new, hot social site only to watch it crash and burn or simply stagnate into irrelevancy, the subconscious tends to guard against future disappointment by calling everything new in its wake a fad.

Twitter has long passed the fad stage and has ensconced itself  in the common usage stage.  Even though it is expecting only 25 million users by the end of this year, there’s enough going on around Twitter these days to start talking about critical mass.  WIRED Magazine’s Steven Levy reported Twitter is looking to grow to 100 million users by the end of 2010 and 1 billion users by 2013. (“Mob Rule! How Users Took Over Twitter“, October, 2009)

In every way, the founders of Twitter are taking the long tail to success by building a foundation and resisting all temptations to cash out (and possibly flame out with devoted users) because of hasty decisions regarding monetization and features.

Still, people mining Twitter Search today for real-time buzz about products, services, hot topics and hot questions can be seen as pioneers when comparing the number of current Twitter users with projections 1-3 years out.  We just can’t call it a fad anymore.

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Tagged as: future of twitter, real time search, steven levy, twitter, twitter fad, wired magazine

  • http://www.bradgosse.com Brad Gosse

    I can’t wait to see how/when twitter monetizes all this traffic. It’s been a challenge for many web 2.0 properties to do. Although I am told, they are one of the leanest companies around.

  • http://www.ben-lang.com Ben Lang

    I just wanted to give you a shoutout man! You are a remarkable blogger and a role model to me! Thanks so much!
    Sincerely,
    Ben Lang

  • http://www.brickmarketing.com Nick @ Brick Marketing

    If you think about it everything is a fad some just last longer than others. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t apply it to your business.

  • http://my-life-and-sleep-apnea.blogspot.com David Stillwagon

    a billion users in twitter by 2013! I wonder how they come up with that number

  • http://www.thesmallcompanyblog.com/ Eric Rudolf

    I agree that Twitter isn’t just a fad, but hey . . . would it kill them to figure out a way to take at least SOME cash and add some bandwidth? Point being, if they continue to have capacity issues, eventually someone is going to swoop in and take over. I only use Twitter a few times a day, and I’m completely frustrated with the lack of response time.

    Nice article.

  • http://www.pdftodocconverterpro.com/ Ron

    So these numbers are just fake?

  • http://www.affiliateblogonline.com/ Paula from Affiliate Blog Online

    It will be interesting to see if Twitter can maintain it’s popularity levels. For some reason, it still hasn’t hit teens in a big way. If Twitter could grab that market then their numbers would soar.

  • http://pavleh.blogspot.com Pavle

    - seriously, it’s not gonna be long before some kind of Facebook/Twitter miracle replaces the common usage of passports, ID cards etc. All we really lack is our laptops scanning our fingertips and printing out money – and that’s it. :D

  • http://4front.co.nz/trademe/ Trademe

    I have long held the belief that Twitter would be just a passing fad, but I am gradually starting to see the light with its partnerships with some of the big titans like Google and Bing. However I agree with the comment on watching how Twitter will monetise all these users.

  • http://www.mangosteenjuicetestimonials.com/ James Mangosteen Dean

    @ Paula

    Yeah, I agree. The teens are still to find Twitter despite much publicity from celebrity Tweeters.

  • http://affiliate-marketingforum.com affiliate marketing forum

    Twitter is huge.

    I just hope they find a way to lessen the number of people spamming within the tweetsphere. When it first came out, I was quite amazed how people will use it as a part of their business. Who knows, maybe next year, Twitter will have a competitor.

  • http://dailycashsaver.blogspot.com/ Joshua Fairfield

    Twitter is a joke i dont think it will last long because facebook can have applications that can do the same thing as twitter. Plus you look at all the spam it is crazy.

  • http://bestsqldba.com John@sql dba

    I think it has passed the fad stage, but Im still not sure if it’s going to keep growing. Right now when I log into my Twitter most everything I see is just poor attempts at marketing from home based business owners trying to make a buck, which I dont have anything against actually, I dont really see that as the same as spamming, but all the same it really doesn’t make the place all that interesting.

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