Indonesia has long been the Twitter capital of the world, but rival apps and rancorous political debate are driving users away, illustrating the challenges the microblogging service faces even in markets once considered strongholds.
While Twitter doesn’t break down country figures, Global Web Index data shows Indonesia remains joint first with Mexico in active users among the 34 countries the UK-based metrics company monitors - and significantly ahead in terms of penetration, at 74 percent of all Internet users.
But that masks a deeper shift, analysts and users say, as changing tastes, culture and politics push Indonesians to rival services. The proportion of active Twitter users in Indonesia has dipped 10 percentage points in the past two years, to about one third of Internet users, the Global Web Index data show.
“Unless Twitter makes changes or there’s some new exciting things on Twitter that can’t be found on other platforms then I don’t think people are coming back to Twitter,” said Enda Nasution, a blogger and entrepreneur who has nearly 200,000 followers on his Twitter account.
A Twitter spokesman declined to comment on the data, saying he had not seen it, but said younger people in major markets like Indonesia and India were eager users. He said the company was expanding in Indonesia and working with airlines, banks and celebrities to add services and content.
He noted Indonesia was one of the top markets for Twitter’s recent acquisition Periscope, which allows users to stream live video.
Twitter on Wednesday reported its first quarter since going public with no growth in users, and announced changes to its global service.
Among younger users - active Twitter users in the 16-24 year age range - Indonesia lags Spain, Mexico and the UK. JakPat, an Indonesian survey company, found last month that teenagers were less likely to use Twitter regularly than those aged 26 and above, and were switching to other apps such as Facebook and its photosharing sibling Instagram.
But there’s also a push factor: Indonesians are leery of Twitter’s core appeal; its default public feed, where everything a user posts is visible to everyone on the network.
What was once an attraction in Indonesia’s sociable culture became a liability in 2014’s fractious presidential election.
