Twitter Now The Fastest Growing Global Social Platform, 21% Of The Internet Population Are Active Users

According to a report from GlobalWebIndexOne Pinterest may have dominated U.S. Growth in 2012, but Twitter had the largest global growth. In 2012, monthly worldwide active Twitter users grew 40% from Q2 to Q4, nearly a 288 million user increase. The new number means that 21% of the global worldwide population are active users.

The next fastest growing networks were Facebook, Google+ and Russia’s vkontakte. Surprisingly, Twitter’s U.S. growth hasn’t hit the saturation point and still grew 94% from Q2 to Q4. The fastest growing location was the Hong Kong region that saw nearly 100% growth over these two quarters.

So, just where did all the growth come from? It turns out that the answer lies in the older age groups. The over-55-year-old age group grew 115%, and the 45-54 age range grew 81% between Q2 and Q4.

While Pinterest has been one of the hottest social sites of 2012, it was a bit surprising to see it 8th on the global growth list last year. One culprit is actually where Twitter excelled, the older age groups. Pinterest actually showed negative growth among the 45-54 and 55+year old age groups. Look for more user experience tweaks for the less tech savvy a greater globalization strategy from Pinterest in the coming years to enhance global growth.

For more information, see GlobalWebIndex.