Over the past decade, social media has become a major part of our everyday lives, and social media presence is deemed essential for businesses. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, are some of the most well-known websites nowadays. These platforms are used for various purposes such as connecting with family and friends as well as for digital marketing.
Thus, the popularity of these platforms was on the rise for a number of years. However, in July 2018, Twitter reported a decline in monthly active users, which is a major sign of its decreasing popularity.
Thus, it is important to analyse the key factors behind Twitter’s decline and try to establish whether it will continue to die in the year 2019.
Twitter’s Fake Accounts
Dealing with fake accounts has been a major issue for Twitter. It is often very difficult to identify and deal with these accounts. For instance, there are various accounts around the world which are not active at all. It is tricky for Twitter to identify whether these accounts are fake and thereafter delete them. In early 2018, Twitter axed more than 70 million suspicious accounts over several months. This was known as the Twitter Purge.
Additionally, going forward, if the company is unable to deal with the menace of fake accounts, it is likely to continue its downward spiral in 2019.
[Note from Editor: See related post about Fake Accounts On Facebook.]
Another issue that the platform has been facing is that of spam bots. There are a lot of bots operative on Twitter, whose sole purpose is to promote their links and products. These are automated programs that comment on tweets and are not operated by a single person. Twitter has made several attempts to remove all bots, but there are many such accounts that are still active on the platform. Getting rid of all spam bots is also critical for Twitter. If it does not happen, then the decline will only accelerate.
Twitter’s Falling User Base
Another issue for Twitter is the increasingly tight competitive landscape. Whilst Twitter has already been battling with social media giants such as Facebook and Instagram, there are now other players in the market such as Pinterest and Reddit. Especially, due to the strict limitations that Twitter holds just like the Instagram daily limits, the atmosphere is being even more competitive.
The market share for Twitter has been declining along with its user base, and this needs to be addressed quickly. For instance, according to Bloomberg in the quarter ended June 2018, Twitter’s monthly active user base fell to 335 million. This was one million less than the previous quarter. In the wake of these results, the stock prices plummeted over 25%.
This shows that the platform is losing customers to other platforms and also not proving to be attractive for new users. Going in to 2019, Twitter is likely to continue its decline simply because the social media industry is now a very congested marketplace. There are also newer players such as Vero and Musical.ly who are vying for a share of the same pie. Hence, Twitter is likely to face a long road ahead in the year 2019.
Twitter’s Political Influence
Another issue that has been plaguing the social media giant is the political bias accusations. According to Washington Post, Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey admitted in 2018 that the platform has a “left-leaning” bias.
This is a dangerous state of affairs which could speed up its decline in coming years. One of the fundamental criteria for any online platform is that it needs to be fair and unbiased. There are various experts who have been criticising Twitter for promoting content that is biased towards people who are so-called “Liberals”. This has damaged the image of Twitter, and if it is not addressed immediately, the site will likely continue its downward spiral.
Such questions of bias have become a real menace for Twitter and time, and again it has been questioned whether the platform is attractive enough for users who are less interested in politics. There are too many political posts on the platform, and this has almost become a turn off for many users.
Dorsey also discussed the fact that Twitter has been placing “shadow bans” on some users. This is another worrying sign for the platform. Often, these bans have been criticised for being implemented on users who were not guilty of any or little wrongdoing. This has angered many users, and Twitter has been left red-faced. If such a trend of unreasonable bans continues, the site is likely to lose even more users going into 2019.
Further, the platform has not been successful in weeding out “hate content” with total accuracy. There have been many instances of tweets and videos which were inappropriate and yet were allowed on the platform. Such cases only fuel the decline of Twitter, and if they are not addressed properly, they will cause great damage to the firm. In 2019, the social network will continue to decline unless it can reverse this trend.
Divisiveness Claim Against Twitter
Another accusation that has been laid on Twitter is that the platform promotes divisiveness. In the run up to the 2016 US election, the social media platform was accused of promoting messages and posts which were divisive in nature. It was alleged that this helped in shaping the outcome of the elections as well.
Former US President Barack Obama said in 2017 that social media should not be a tool which divides the people when it comes to political affiliation. Coming into 2018, such accusations continue to thrive simply due to the fact that Twitter has not acted swiftly enough on tackling divisiveness. Going in to 2019, if the platform continues to foster a culture of divisiveness, it is likely to decline even further.
To sum up, there are a wide variety of issues that have been hurting the growth of Twitter and holding it back. If all of the above mentioned issues are not tackled quickly, Twitter is likely to fade away even further in 2019. Everyone remembers the demise of the social network Orkut (which had to be eventually shut down) and Twitter would want to avoid that fate. In order to stem this decline, the social network needs to act swiftly, because if it doesn’t, it will be quickly forgotten!
[Note from Editor: Twitter is not alone! Google has just announced that over the next 10 months it will shut down Google+ due to low usage and engagement. That is no surprise as Social Media Revolver predicted this already in early 2016. See the story: Top 5 Reasons Why Google+ Is Dead]
[Main Photo by Mitja Juraja from Pexels]
Anna Clarke is the owner of online writing company 15 Writers. She is a successful entrepreneur with over 20 years’ experience in both freelancing and academic writing industries, specialising in Business, Economics, Finance, Marketing and Management.
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