Is the Twitter glass half-empty or half-full?

We found an interesting article on TechCrunch this week that grabbed our attention. It said "Only 50% of Twitter messages are in English," and it's based on the research conducted by Semiocast who found that 50% of Twitter messages are in English, with Japanese at 14%, Portuguese at 9%, Malay at 6% and Spanish at 4%. It's great that ONLY half of users are now speaking in English (especially considering that the number was at 75% last year) and that the Twitter phenomenon is truly going global. But it's also hard to ignore that on the flip side, 50% of Twitter messages ARE STILL in English and that this "global" phenomenon is mostly speaking English. The number of non-English Twitter users are growing, and it's both remarkable and encouraging. But the internet has a long way to go to fully and accurately represent non-English language content online, which is something we discussed in greater detail in our Translation Report last year.

myGengo is doing its part to bridge the gap between non-English and English speakers alike with Twitter Translations. And if you happen to follow any of our twitter translation accounts, tell your own followers! The more people we have following these accounts, the more we'll be able to build a community on Twitter, and break down those language barriers!

Happy tweeting!


For more information, check out:
"Half of Twitter Tweets Not in English, Study Finds" on LA Times Blog
"Twitter Migrates into Mulitlingual Markets" on Global Watchtower
"Coming Soon: Twitter in More Languages" on Twitter Blog