April 29, 2009 by Matt Thomas
Doubts have been cast over the longevity of social networking site Twitter after a report from Nielsen Online revealed that as many as 60 per cent of new twitter users stopped using the site a month after signing up. Now, in many other industries a retention rate of four out of ten might well be seen as pretty good, however in the cut throat world of social networking the fact that so many people are quitting after such a short period is very troubling.
This information is likely to heavily affect the ongoing buyout discussions surrounding the site. If the site is failing to hook this many people then potential buyers may well be tempted to revise down their evaluations to consider active users as opposed to gross users.
It is thought by many that the explosion in usage of twitter by corporations has adversely affected the user experience for the individuals that twitter is trying to target. These days, the site seems to feature as many announcements about ‘fiscal growth this quarter’ and ‘new products available today’ as it does actual updates from people. It is however, at this stage, unclear what, if anything, twitter plans to do about it.
Related posts:
