Twitter Now Has 10 Million UK Users

Independent studies suggest the UK is the fourth-largest country for Twitter users in the world, after the US, Brazil and Japan. Photograph: Chris Batson /Alamy

Twitter now has 10 million active users in the UK, out of 140 million worldwide, the company has revealed – and 80%, an unusually high number, access it through mobile phones.

The data about the UK, revealed for the first time by the company, indicates that 8 million who logged in to the company's site in the past 30 days did so from a mobile phone, compared to Twitter's global average of 55%.

Independent studies suggest that the UK is the fourth-largest country for Twitter users in the world, after the US, Brazil and Japan.

The UK's proportion of mobile users is 45% higher than the average for the world, indicating the strength of Twitter use in the UK. Although most users are almost certain to log in via a desktop or laptop computer at some point, a Twitter UK spokeswoman said: "We have seen growth in the number of people signing up from a mobile."

That, she said, went back to the DNA of Twitter – which was originally set up in 2006 as a service that would work over SMS, which is why its messages are limited to 140 characters.

Twitter also points out that its users are particularly active in generating content: 60% have contributed to the network, either through tweeting or posting a picture or other content, compared to the world's biggest video site YouTube, where sources say just 1% of users ever posts a video.

However, the figure for active users suggests a high attrition rate: a study by research firm Semiocast in January claimed about 383m Twitter profiles had been created up to the beginning of 2012, with about one-third of those in the US.

Twitter use in the UK came into sharp focus in summer 2011 when it was initially blamed for inciting some of the riots in London and other cities.

It also saw a sharp peak in use in spring 2011 after the footballer Ryan Giggs sued the company when a number of tweets appeared on the service alleging that he had had an affair with the model Imogen Thomas – a claim which at the time was covered by a superinjunction.

The profusion of tweets led Lord Judge, the lord chief justice on the case, to complain that users of Twitter were totally out of control when it came to privacy injunctions and court orders.

But the company itself, which celebrates its first year of operating with a UK office on 1 June, and has grown from zero staff to more than 30, is pointing to its growing success as an advertising platform, which chief executive Dick Costolo is driving through "promoted" tweets, trends and other paid-for content, known collectively as "Promoted Products" and which Twitter has been selling in the UK since September 2011.

Since then organisations including the British Heart Foundation, Cadbury and Absolute Radio have used Twitter to promote their services, while many others have taken advantage of the platform to build use.

Among those was the Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green, which tweeted on 24 February 2011 that without help, it would have to close its doors in nine months because it would be unable to pay back a bank loan. The day after posting the tweet – which was picked up and became part of the trending tweets for London – the shop sold enough books to cover its bank loan repayments for nearly two months. That was followed by broader interest around the world; the site is now trading healthily.

The social networking service has come a long way since August 2009, when co-founder Evan Williams was interviewed on the BBC's Newsnightand said: "London is our top Twitter-using city as of today and the UK is second only to the US in terms of number of Twitter users."

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