Internal research from Twitter shared a number of insights about the platform and its users
(Picture: Brett Jordan/Pexels)Based on exclusive internal research from Twitter, seen by Reuters, a number of findings about the platform have been revealed.
Among them is a renewed surge in people asking “is Twitter dying?”, a question that seems to resurface every few years.
In addition, two topics of interest for English-speaking Twitter users have both risen in popularity in the last two years: cryptocurrency and NSFW (not safe for work) content. NSFW content generally refers to nudity and pornography, among other things deemed inappropriate, such as graphic content or strong language.
Twitter is one of the few major social media platforms that permits nudity on its service under its content moderaton guidelines. However, this has landed it in hot water in the past, with major advertisers such as Dyson, PBS Kids, and Forbes suspending adverts due to Twitter accounts soliciting child pornography.
Nonetheless, the company has estimated that adult content constitutes 13 per cent of Twitter content, according to a separate internal slide presentation seen by Reuters.
On the topic of cryptocurrency, Twitter’s most active English-speaking users used to be increasingly interested in cryptocurrencies. This reached a record high in late 2021. However, interest in the topic has begun to flag since the crypto price crash in June and Twitter acknowledged that cryptocurrencies may not be an area of growth in the future.
At the same time, interest in news, sports, and entertainment is waning among those same users, areas that Twitter used to be well-known for. What’s more, tweets on those topics are also the most desirable for advertisers, signalling that if Twitter doesn’t re-energise those topics, it could be losing money fast.
Reuters reported that Twitter’s study examined the number of highly active tweeters in English who displayed an interest in a topic, based on the accounts they followed. It then tracked how that number of users changed over the past two years.
The documents stated that Twitter was now motivated to investigate “disturbing” trends among users that may have been masked by overall growth in daily active users. The platform is reportedly seeking to understand better the decline in the company’s most active users.
The social media platform will surely be keen to find answers soon, with the deadline at the end of this week for Twitter and Elon Musk to find an agreement for the billionaire to buy the platform. As Mr Musk has already publicly questioned the longevity of the social media site, being able to assure him of its future success will surely be a priority if it wants the deal to go ahead.
