Twitter accounts for only 17% of Indian social network users

As Twitter in India clocks a double digit growth rate, the micro-blogging site accounts for only 17 per cent of the total social network users in one of the world's largest Internet market.

According to a report by market research firm eMarketer, Japan will boast of the largest Twitter population in Asia Pacific at 26 million followed by India at 22.2 million users. Last year, the research firm had forecast that India will have 18.1 million Twitter users by 2014.

In India, growth this year (2015) is expected to be more than twice as fast at 30.4 per cent. While it shows signs of slowing, it will still climb by 16.5 per cent in 2018, the report said. "But the Twitter population in India represents a much smaller share of social network users in the country, at 17 per cent and just 8.8 per cent of Internet users," it added.

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eMarketer said the the low Internet penetration rate in Asia-Pacific's second-largest country means that overall, just 1.8 per cent of the population uses Twitter, which will barely budge reaching only 3 per cent by 2018.

Twitter is also working towards boosting its business and revenues in India by partnering with India's largest private sector bank and accuiring a Bangalore-based mobile marketing start up. The efforts are part of its strategy to strengthen its platform, especially on mobile devices, and connect brands with customers.

Earlier, the research firm projected the micro-blogging site's rival, Facebook will have more than 100 million users accessing its platform using mobile phones. India will surpass the US to lead the global tally of the largest Facebook user base on mobile by 2017, it had forecast.

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Recently, Facebook announced that the growing Internet penetration and a large youth population has helped it expand its user base in India to 112 million -- which is the largest after the US. Of the 112 million users in India, more than 99 million utilise the platform on their mobile phones at least once a month. About 45 million users in India are using their mobile phones every day to connect with their friends on Facebook.

Source: PTI