31% of Internet Users Between The Ages of 18 and 24 Use Twitter. 20% Use Twitter Daily.

By On In Blog, Mobile, Smartphones, Social Media, Twitter

Recent trends show that Twitter is rapidly increasing in popularity and could eventually reach the levels of Facebook in terms of influence. While the social network has been around since 2006 and has always had a devoted, loyal following, it has often been viewed as secondary to Facebook in terms of social networks. That could be changing very soon.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo recently said the site now has over 400 million tweets a day. Additionally, Twitter revealed that 60% of their 140 million active users access the social network through mobile devices. That number reflects an increase of 55% from data released in September 2011.

A key demographic group is also showing heightened levels of interest in Twitter. A survey conducted by Pew shows 31% of internet users between the ages of 18 and 24 use Twitter, and 22% of them access the social network via mobile devices. This younger demographic is the fastest growing segment of users; 20% of them say they use Twitter daily.

These numbers illustrate Twitter’s growing popularity combined with a shift to mobile caused in part by the increasing prevalence of smartphones among users.

While Facebook has been making attempts to increase their mobile exposure and adjust to users increasingly accessing the site via mobile devices rather than traditional computers, Twitter has always been well positioned to succeed on both, especially through mobile. The simplicity of Twitter helps it to easily translate across multiple devices and platforms while also creating an ease of entry for users looking for quick, basic communication through social media.

Twitter has also been leading the way for monetizing the mobile experience.

“We have an ad platform that already is inherently suited to mobile, even though we launched our platform on the Web and only started running ads on mobile recently.”

– Twitter CEO Dick Costolo.

The company projects revenue to reach $269 million in 2012 and has expectations of $540 million in 2013. Additionally, there have been reports that the site could surpass $1 billion in revenue by 2014.

Whether Twitter can rise to become the undisputed champion of social media and dethrone Facebook waits to be seen. But it’s difficult to imagine the popularity of the site trailing off any time soon, especially if you consider the growing acceptance of Twitter hashtags and user handles in TV shows, commercials, sporting events, pop culture and business.