A new survey conducted by Internet research company Hitwise has found that Twitter users prefer to visit entertainment websites rather than peruse current events.
“Twitter.com accounted for 0.14% of upstream visits to News and Media sites last week. This compares to 3.64% from Facebook and 1.27% from Google News. Note that we are measuring website visits from Twitter.com only,” explained senior online analyst Heather Hopkins.
“[Meanwhile], Facebook was the #3 source of visits to News and Media websites last week. Google News was the #11 site and Twitter.com ranked #39.”
According to Hopkins, the majority (60%) of Twitter.com members visit social networks and entertainment sites, such as photography and video sharing services.
Hopkins also noted that Twitter has enjoyed “explosive growth,” by nearly tripling share of US Internet visits year over year last week.
“However, news and media companies have not seen similar growth rates in upstream traffic from Twitter. Upstream visits from Twitter.com to News and Media sites have grown by 54% over the past year. Compare this to upstream visits to ‘all categories’ of websites, for which visits from Twitter.com have more than doubled (138%),” she added.
