In June 2010, about 93 million unique global users age 15 and older visited Twitter from a home or work location. This is an increase of 109 percent from last year of June 2010. Keep in mind that this data excludes usage of Twitter-based applications such as TweetDeck and Hoot Suite.

An analysis by comScore of the five major global regions revealed that Latin America experienced the strongest audience growth, surging 305 percent to 15.4 million users. Asia Pacific ranked as the second-fastest growing region, climbing 243 percent to 25.1 million visitors. The Middle-East Africa jumped 142 percent to 5 million visitors, while Europe soared 106 percent to 22.5 million visitors. North America, where Twitter has reached a higher maturity level than other regions, saw a growth of 22 percent to nearly 25 million visitors in June.

Here are the numbers from comScore:

  Visitation to Twitter.com by Global Regions
  -------------------------------------------
  June 2010 vs. June  2009
  ------------------------
  Total Audience, Age 15+ -Home & Work
   Locations*
  ------------------------------------
  Source: comScore Media Metrix
  -----------------------------
                        Unique Visitors (000)
                        ---------------------
                     Jun-09      Jun-10    % Change
                     ------      ------    --------
  Worldwide            44,520      92,874       109
  ---------            ------      ------       ---
  Latin America         3,792      15,377       305
  -------------         -----      ------       ---
  Asia Pacific          7,324      25,121       243
  ------------          -----      ------       ---
  Middle East -
   Africa               2,058       4,987       142
  -------------         -----       -----       ---
  Europe               10,956      22,519       106
  ------               ------      ------       ---
  North America        20,390      24,870        22
  -------------        ------      ------       ---

*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

Across the 41 individual countries currently reported by comScore, Indonesia at 20.8 percent had the highest proportion of its home and work Internet audience visiting Twitter.com. Brazil ranked second with 20.5 percent penetration, followed by Venezuela at 19.0 percent. With Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez joining Twitter in late April, Twitter.com penetration in the country spiked 4.8 percentage points in a few short months. The Netherlands (17.7 percent) and Japan (16.8 percent) rounded out the top five, while countries in Latin America and Asia Pacific represented many of the remaining top markets, including the Philippines (14.8 percent), Mexico (13.4 percent) and Singapore (13.3 percent).

  Top 20 Markets by Twitter Penetration
  -------------------------------------
  June 2010
  ---------
  Total Audience, Age 15+ -Home & Work
   Locations*
  ------------------------------------
  Source: comScore Media Metrix
  -----------------------------
  Location                     % Reach
  --------                     -------
  Worldwide                             7.4
  ---------                             ---
  Indonesia                            20.8
  ---------                            ----
  Brazil                               20.5
  ------                               ----
  Venezuela                            19.0
  ---------                            ----
  Netherlands                          17.7
  -----------                          ----
  Japan                                16.8
  -----                                ----
  Philippines                          14.8
  -----------                          ----
  Canada                               13.5
  ------                               ----
  Mexico                               13.4
  ------                               ----
  Singapore                            13.3
  ---------                            ----
  Chile                                13.2
  -----                                ----
  United States                        11.9
  -------------                        ----
  Turkey                               11.0
  ------                               ----
  United Kingdom                       10.9
  --------------                       ----
  Argentina                            10.5
  ---------                            ----
  Colombia                              9.6
  --------                              ---
  South Korea                           9.3
  -----------                           ---
  Ireland                               8.4
  -------                               ---
  India                                 8.0
  -----                                 ---
  Malaysia                              7.7
  --------                              ---
  New Zealand                           7.5
  -----------                           ---

*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

What’s interesting is that an analysis of Twitter usage via mobile for the six mobile markets currently reported by comScore (U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Spain and Italy) revealed that Twitter is gaining adoption among smartphone users. In the U.S., 8.3 percent of smartphone users (4.2 million people) accessed Twitter.com in a month via the browser on their mobile devices, outpacing each of the European markets. In Europe, 2.8 percent of smartphone users overall accessed Twitter.com (1.7 million users), with the U.K. experiencing the strongest penetration in the region at 5.8 percent, followed by Germany with 3.1 percent and France with 2.1 percent.

  Twitter Penetration Among Mobile
   Smartphone Users*
  3 Month Avg. Ending June 2010
  Total Audience Age 13+
  Source: comScore MobiLens
  -------------------------
                  Twitter    % Reach of
                  Audience   Smartphone
                     (000)      Users
                 --------   -----------
  United States      4,246          8.3
  -------------      -----          ---
  Europe             1,681          2.8
  ------             -----          ---
  United
   Kingdom             793          5.8
  --------             ---          ---
  Germany              322          3.1
  -------              ---          ---
  France               173          2.1
  ------               ---          ---
  Spain                165          1.5
  -----                ---          ---
  Italy                227          1.4
  -----                ---          ---

*Includes only mobile browser access to Twitter and does not include other Twitter-based mobile applications.

comScore says that “For applications such as Twitter that function as an instantaneous broadcast medium, the mobile device represents the ideal platform to engage with this content anytime and anyplace,” added Mr. Mudd. “The advanced web browsing features of smartphones enable this behavior, making it likely to accelerate as these devices gain continued adoption. While desktop-based Internet usage is still king, mobile web usage is surging on a global scale placing applications like Twitter at the forefront of that paradigm shift.”

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These numbers represent visitors not accounts so the number of Twitter users and the number of active accounts are not part of these results. What they do represent however is an increase of 7 million visitors from May to June of this year which is pretty strong. Amazing what a little political mayhem in Iran can do to goose the business fortunes of Internet entrepreneurs in the US.

Twitter must be happy with these numbers for sure, especially the fact that there was a remarkable 1,460% increase in visitors from June of 2008 to June of 2009. So how could this be better? Well, about 20 million of the total 44.5 million visitors are from the US, which means that the international appeal of the service is very strong. The best piece though is that it is estimated that only about ½ of the total Twitter user population actually visit the site. The heaviest users in fact are using a variety of third party apps like TweetDeck to manage their Twitter experience.

So you can talk about all the psychology and community and whatever other ‘ology’ there is about Twitter but at the bottom of all of it are large numbers of visitors and users. These are the things that companies spend money on. You know, pesky numbers and cold hard facts. Now if only Twitter would try to make a little money from all of this ‘success’. It’s getting to the point now that this needs to be the next news coming from the little bird, don’t you think?

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YouTube is reporting that in the last six month uploads from mobile phones have jump 1700%; and since the iPhone 3GS with video came out last Friday uploads have increased by 400% every day.

YouTube reports that the growth is being driven by three overlapping developments:

• new video-enabled phones
• improvements in upload flow when posting from a phone
• a new feature that allows videos to be easily shared on social networks.

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ClickZ shares a new report by analyst firm Screen Digest and media firm GroupM that predicts the nascent in-game advertising industry will come through the current soft market and emerge victorious.

In 2008 advertisers spent roughly $55 million on dynamic in-game advertising in 2008, according to the report. Though it doesn’t disclose exact figures, Screen Digest describes a short-term softness in ad spending on emerging formats but says that softness will give way to a sharp increase in spending — to $1.2 billion by 2014.

A sharp increase? How about an imaginary one?

The prediction is based on some fuzzy calculations on the growth of gamers and the hope that Nintendo will decide to allow in-game ads.

It seems to me that someone’s gotten their reality confused with their fantasy–I’ll eat my copy of Wii Sports if these numbers are even close!

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From a report on cnet, here are the results of the Top 5 fastest growing, as Nielsen refers to them, ‘member community destinations’ for the February to February time period.

As with most data there may be questions raised. For instance a common number thrown around about how many Facebook users there are is 175 million but in the US it apparently is 65 million. You don’t see that number quite as often although it is still impressive. The members of the top 5 are quite a bit smaller than even Twitter and 2 of them are not even social media sites. That’s just minor stuff though.

One area I would like to see more detail on is the age ranges that Twitter has their greatest success. I was admittedly surprised at Twitter’s claim that the largest user group of Twitter is aged 34-49. That would appear to be at least an indication that the reason for Twitter’s success is business related. No evidence of that one just an educated guess.

The other element of growth that is making Twitter investors twiddy (that’s giddy in Twitter speak) is the use of mobile phones and devices to access the application. 735,000 unique visitors did so in January of this year. In addition, on just AT&T and Verizon alone there were 812,000 users accessing Twitter via text message.

While some people have even said that Twitter has jumped the shark it appears that even if they did there are a lot people following them despite that prediction. What will happen over the next year is going to be interesting to watch when you consider that even the mighty Facebook has made recent changes that have tipped a hat to the Twitter model. Since imitation is the greatest form of flattery that should be enough to motivate Twitter to have another year of quadruple digit growth. Tweet that!

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Hitwise reports a 1332% increase in web visitors on March 3rd.

Alexa–put the rotten tomatoes away–confirms this jump in traffic:

And Google Trends saw a spike in the number of people searching for “skittles.”

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However the general public does not – they are flocking to use the site.  Traffic to  Twitter has increased ten-fold (947%) from January 2008 to mid-January 2009, making it one of the fastest-growing websites of the year, according to Hitwise UK.

It’s risen from being the 2,953rd most-visited website to becoming the 291st most-visited, and is the 23rd most popular social networking site in the UK.

As people tweet interesting news items, around 10% of Twitter’s traffic goes to news and media websites. BBC News currently ranks as the 7th most popular site visited after Twitter.

Many of the committed Twitter users have a custom designed and branded page on Twitter.  They say this makes a big difference in the results they get from their tweeting.

Want to get the inside story on how to use Twitter to greatest advantage?  Attend the Bulldog Reporter Social Media Advanced practice workshops in February.  NYC is Thursday and Friday this week.

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Mobile and local have always been a good match, but the implementation of this natural pairing hasn’t fully “arrived.” Mobile by Citysearch, however, is a good step along that path. The new site is designed to be compatible with whatever mobile device you use, including content layout and using your phone’s default navigation (thumbwheel, touch screen, etc.) for a more intuitive UI.

Citysearch has long been available through mobile phones—two years ago, they added mobile search to their site as well as local business listings via text message.

Rather than just making the website readable on a mobile phone, however, the new Mobile by Citysearch better integrates mobile and local. Its new design makes reading and even creating reviews from a mobile device easy and makes popular website features mobile-friendly. The new mobile Citysearch is also integrated with text messaging, allowing users to text reviews, directions and ratings directly to mobile phones.

The Citysearch website has also been redesigned. New features enhance not only the interface but the access to the site’s reviews and other information. But the new site is more than just prettier. An enhanced back end allows for even more focused local searches—down to the neighborhood level, instead of just the metro area.

The new Citysearch also integrates social media better—including the seldom-mentioned Open ID rival, Facebook Connect. The integration with Facebook is one of the best applications of social search so far. If you’re signed in to Facebook (currently or using a permanent session), Citysearch will highlight your friends’ reviews of local restaurants. (Image from Read Write Web.)

Finally, the new Citysearch is sure score points with local business owners—it prominently features owner comments alongside editor and user comments. It also is added enhanced features for videos of local businesses through a partnership with Brightcove.

Users will be able to upload their own photos and videos early next year.

This redesign comes just a few days after some bad press for Yelp, a rival local review site. Yelp is alleged to have offered to remove or move down negative reviews of local businesses for a fee (and there’s even some allegations they took the money without actually moving the reviews, doubly unethical).

Yelp has been gaining momentum against Citysearch’s popularity recently, but Citysearch’s new features and Yelp’s bad press might combine to reverse that. What do you think—are the new features cool enough to get your “vote” (traffic)?

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