Social Media

Twitter's Users Are in Asia, but Its Revenue Is in the U.S.

ByJ oshua Brustein May 27, 2014
Twitters (TWTR) user growth will drop below 10 percent in the U.S. next year, and more than 40 percent of Twitter users will live in Asia in five years,
according to a report published on Tuesday by EMarketer.
Slowing growth in the U.S. has been a concern since before Twitter went public late last year. Its a major reason why the companys stock is down about
60 percent fromits December peak. While welcome, international growth comes with challenges: Its much easier to make money fromadvertising in the
U.S. than in the countries where Twitter is growing fastest.
By the end of this year, 32.8 percent of Twitter users will live in the Asia-Pacific region, even though EMarketer estimates no Twitter usage in China,
where the microblogging service is currently blocked. Any inroads Twitter might make there would change the estimates significantly. According to
eMarketer, India and Indonesia afford Twitter its fastest growth worldwide and are expected to grow 62 percent and 57 percent this year, respectively.
Story: China Minting Millionaires in Global Wealth Surge
While U.S. users made up only about 22 percent of Twitters total user base last year, 72 percent of the companys revenue came fromthe U.S. To measure
how well it is converting Twitter activity into specific cash money, Twitter uses a unique, slightly murky metric called revenue-per-timeline-view; in the
U.S., it made $3.47 per 1,000 timeline views; in the rest of the world, the figure was just 61. As Twitter has aggressively developed new ways to improve
its advertising business, the amount of money it makes per timeline view is growing rapidly. The company has been talking up its push to increase ad
spending fromsmall businessesespecially internationallywith automated ad products.
Twitter isnt the only company that finds itself in this situation. Facebook (FB) users in the U.S. account for 16 percent of the companys total but account
for 47 percent of its revenue. While 30 percent of Facebooks users are in Asia, only 13.5 percent of its ad revenue comes fromthere.
Story: Twitter Loses a Powerful Executive
Story: Xiaomi's Phones Have Conquered China. Now It's Aiming for the Rest of the World
Story: Hong Kong's Pricey New Cruise-Ship Terminal Doesn't Have Many Cruise Ships
Story: Jenny Lee: The VC With an Eye for China's Rising Tech Giants
Brustein is a writer for Businessweek.comin New York.
LIMITED-TIME OFFER SUBSCRIBE NOW
0 Comments
Read this next

China Builds Artificial Islands in South China Sea

Feed Most Popular
Read
Page10 of 14 Twitter's Users Are in Asia, but Its Revenue Is in the U.S. - Businessweek
6/23/2014 http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-05-27/twitters-users-are-in-asia-but-its-revenu...
C
lic
k
t
o
b
u
y
N
O
W
!
P
D
F-XChan
g
e
w
w
w
.d
o
c u-t r ac
k
.c
o
m
C
lic
k
t
o
b
u
y
N
O
W
!
P
D
F-XChan
g
e
w
w
w
.d
o
c u-t r ac
k
.c
o
m