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.”

Comments

A Venezuelan television station is the latest to use the video-sharing site to get around government and legal pressures.

It’s pure freedom of the press in action and a nice reminder of why the US established the principle to begin with.

Thanks, Hugo Chavez, for reinforcing what we’ve been saying for over 200 years.

Blogging for 10ZenMonkeys, Venezuelan Rodrigo Arcaya deftly narrates the angst happening right now surrounding the country’s President Chavez.

It’s a long (but worth it) read about the political climate there, and a tale of how one TV station is taking its show on the road – er, the Information Super Highway.

Chavez, not liking how RCTV was portraying him and other critical historical moments (Arcaya regales the reader with the goings on in 2002, when Chavez took control of the airwaves to tell a different tale of what was happening outside his doors than what was happening – shown in split-screen format by RCTV), booted the national network off the air, leaving only tepid, supportive and governmental channels.

The group of hard-hitting reporters aren’t taking that lying down though.

They’ve taken their channel online to YouTube, where anybody with a modem and unfettered access can see unapproved reporting.

While this is a very exciting eff-you to Chavez, it will be interesting to see what El Presidente’s next move is.

It only takes a little research to know that Google and YouTube have been soft when it comes to government pressures.

Google has folded to China, Thailand, South Korea, and Brazil in the past.

If Chavez were to block access to YouTube in Venezuela, it makes one wonder if Google would crumble again, or if the company would finally bow-up and stick it to The Man.  

No big deal, said CNN. Radio Caracas already has a way around Chavez’s order:

Although the station is officially off the air, CNN’s Harris Whitbeck said its news department continues to operate on reduced staffing, and the three daily hour-long installments of the newscast “El Observador” are uploaded onto YouTube by RCTV’s Web department.

“We’re just doing our job as journalists,” said an employee of RCTV. “As long as somebody is seeing us, we consider what we are doing to be valid.”

Chavez and Radio Caracas had been at odds for years, with the latest incident happening when the government refused to renew the station’s broadcast license. Reporters Without Borders now says the Chavez regime will next target Globovisi