Twitter Update 2011

As of May 2011, 13% of online adults use the status update service Twitter.

That represents a significant increase from the 8% of online adults who identified themselves as Twitter users the first time Pew asked our “stand-alone” question about Twitter adoption in November 2010. Pew also included a follow-up question asking cell phone-owning Twitter users if they access the service on their phones and found that half (54%) access the service in this way. Non-white Internet users continue to have higher rates of Twitter use than their white counterparts; indeed, the Twitter adoption gap between African-Americans and whites has increased over the past six months. In November 2010, there was an eight percentage point difference in Twitter use between African-American and white Internet users (13% for blacks vs. 5% for whites). By May 2011, that gap was 16 percentage points -- 25% of online African Americans now use Twitter, compared with 9% of such whites. African-American and Latino Internet users are each significantly more likely than whites to be Twitter adopters. Even more notable: One in ten African-American Internet users now visit Twitter on a typical day -- that is double the rate for Latinos and nearly four times the rate for whites.