Flippin’ the Bird: Twitter Hits 2 Billion Tweets per Month

On Monday, Techi’s Tim Duffy (actually, Tim, can I call you Tim? I’ve never actually asked) predicted Twitter’s eventual downfall, igniting a firestorm of feedback both for and against the social networking darling. Now, upon reading Tim’s post, I threw my head back and laughed defiantly. I love Twitter. I ‘get’ Twitter. Twitter is like a really obscure inside joke; unless you already know what it is, you’re going to think unfounded things like it’s ‘stupid’ and ‘dying’. Am I in denial? Maybe, but I’m certainly not alone.

Check it: in the month of May, in the year two thousand and ten, Twitter has officially hit 2 billion tweets per month. Alright, 1.99 billion. Whatever, that’s a goddamn crap ton of tweets. Pingdom, the folks throwing out these figures, also reported the one billion-tweets-per-month milestone back in December, a mere six months previous.

“That’s promising for Twitter,” said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research. “Fads tend to accelerate upward and come crashing down. It looks like people are finding real uses for Twitter… I don’t have the data, but I think there’s been a shift in usage.”

Actually, Ezra, the data you’re looking for is this: The percentage of Twitter accounts currently tweeting with any regularity is approximately 17%. That’s a really low number. Scary low, even, and I can see why it would prompt Tim to strap on his sandwich board and preach the end. But Gottheil perhaps puts it best: “You can have a lot of people trying Twitter and lose most of them but still increase both the number of users and the level of use.” True say, Ezzy.

Pingdom’s thoughts on the number? “Maybe Twitter won’t quite be able to reach the almost 6 billion tweets per month we’ve predicted for the end of the year, but it’s clear that the Twitter platform is still growing at a healthy pace. Close to doubling the volume of monthly tweets in the last six months is no small feat.”

You’re right, Pingdom, it isn’t. Twitter is far from dead, and certainly, at least for the moment, not dying. Hey – maybe Twitter is still a fad. Maybe it’ll be gone in a couple years. But this is the internet – that’s practically a given. In the meantime, though, I’m content to tweet every poop I have.

[Via PC World]