Nearly Half of Twitter is Silent, Report Says

By the numbers, Twitter is huge, boasting 241 million monthly active users across the globe. But how many of those people are actually tweeting?

A new report from social media tracking site Twopcharts claims that 44 percent of all Twitter accounts have never sent a tweet, reported the Wall Street Journal.

Twitter, however, is hardly a ghost town. That is out of approximately 974 million total accounts - which means that more than 428 million accounts have sent out a tweet.

It's important to note that the 44 percent number is not from Twitter. The company only reveals its monthly active users (defined as people who log in, but do not necessarily tweet, every month) so it's up to outside observers to track everything else.

NBC News reached out to Twitter for comment, but the company did not respond.

Investors raised some eyebrows in February after Twitter's first-ever earnings call, when the company said that it added 9 million users over the last quarter, with only 1 million of those in the United States.

Since then, Twitter has tried widening its appeal, unveiling new pop-up notifications that tell you when someone is interacting with a tweet and a photo-heavy redesign (shown above) on Tuesday that is somewhat reminiscent of another social media network.

First published April 11 2014, 7:26 AM

Keith Wagstaff

Keith Wagstaff is a contributing writer at NBC News. He covers technology, reporting on Internet security, mobile technology and more. He joined NBC News from The Week, where he was a staff writer covering politics. Prior to his work at The Week, he was a technology writer at TIME.He lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

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