Analysis: Is Twitter a Facebook or Google killer?

Authored by Heather Hopkins on March 12, 2009 - 11:41am.

Is Twitter, as Google CEO Eric Schmidt opined last week, the poor man's email? Is it a Facebook or Google killer? What can clickstream data tell us about how people are using Twitter and how does that compare to email, Facebook and search engines? The following table shows the top 20 websites visited after Twitter.com in February:

To get a more macro view of this, the following chart shows downstream visits by category. The dark blue bars are parent categories and the lighter blue bars and sub-categories. For example, Email Services is a sub-category of Computers and Internet.

Twitter sent nearly 1 in 5 downstream visits to Social Networks and 1 in 5 to Entertainment websites in February. The top Social Networks visited after Twitter were, not surprisingly, Facebook and MySpace, followed by the Twitter Search page and YouTube. The top Entertainment websites were Twitpic, YouTube and Flickr. NewTeeVee did a nice post last week on the increase in visits to video sharing sites from Twitter and Facebook, likening these services to personal broadcasting tools.

Twitter clickstream comparison
So how does Twitter's clickstream profile compare with the likes of Google, Facebook and Email Services? The following chart compares downstream visits from Twitter to Google, Social Networks and Email Services.

It appears that Twitter is being used as a social network and means of distributing content. This is by no means the only way it is being used - just one standout trend. Twitter.com's clickstream profile is much closer to a social network than to Search Engines or Email Services. Twitter's clickstream differs markedly from search engines in that relatively little traffic goes to retail websites and Education (i.e. Wikipedia). It is also different from Email in that less traffic goes to Dating websites and again, to retail and Business and Finance websites.

Also, a higher share of downstream visits from Twitter.com go to entertainment websites, in particular photo sharing, and a much larger share go to Blogs and Personal Websites (7.28% in February) and to News and Media. Sounds more like blogging than email or search to me!

Other thoughts/comments/analysis/questions are welcome, as always.

Heather Hopkins

Heather Hopkins is Senior Online Analyst, Hitwise US. This piece was originally posted on Hitwise Analyst blog here.

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Published in DMW Daily, March 12, 2009

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New TV Show - WCG Ultimate Gamer

Submitted by Deb (not verified) on March 15, 2009 - 12:12pm.

Did anyone check out this new WCG Ultimate Gamer show on Sci Fi?????? The first ep was last Tuesday and I'm totally hooked. It's all about video games, the cast is HOT and it's really high tech. The next ep is this Tues Mar 17 at 10pm and since it's St. Pattys day and I plan on getting my drink on, I am going to play this drinking game for the show that I found. Go to www.wcgultimategamer.com to check it out. • Every time you hear Samsung or see a logo, drink for 5 seconds • Every time you hear WCG or see a logo, drink for 8 seconds • Every time you hear Virtua Fighter or see a logo, drink until you don’t hear/see it anymore • Every time Dante plays with his hair, drink for 10 seconds • Pick a gamer – every time they cry, drink while in a funny position • Pick a gamer – every time they curse, assign a drink to someone • Predict whether a team will pass or fail the real world challenge. o If you are correct, make someone else drink. o If you are incorrect, you drink. • Predict which gamer will win the Isolation Challenge. o If you are correct, make someone else drink. o If you are incorrect, you drink. • Predict which gamer will win the Elimination Challenge. o If you are correct, make someone else drink. o If you are incorrect, you drink.