Digital analysis firm eMarketer predicted this week that 18 million adult US consumers will access Twitter at least monthly in 2009. That number will jump to 26 million – 15.5% of all US adult Web users – next year, according to the firm.
It’s possible those membership numbers could go even higher, as eMarketer made conservative estimates because of Twitter’s early dropout rate. “There are indications that large numbers of users are abandoning Twitter after a short period of experimentation, and another sizable contingent seems to use the service only sporadically,” Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst, said in a statement.
Twitter is, of course, trying to find a way to turn those exploding user numbers into a business plan. The microblogging service changed its terms of service last week to allow advertising on the platform.
