BI: Data shows that about 11.5% of Twitter's machine users reach 24 million

According to documents submitted by Twitter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, out of the 284 million users of Twitter, 24 million users act as machines - like applications or parts of software - these users just automatically hang on the Twitter platform but do not participate in actual actions.

In fact, about 8.5% and even 11.5% of Twitter's "users" don't do anything on the platform, which may be a problem for Twitter. Business Insider previously reported that 741 million users around the world have opened Twitter accounts but later abandoned them. In addition, Business Insider also reported that most Twitter users do not send messages through the platform in any month. Last October, Twitter's stock price plummeted from $55 to $38, and the main reason was that Twitter's user growth momentum has been very weak, especially compared with Facebook.

Of course, Twitter may not think so. A Twitter spokesperson told Business Insider: "These are real users of the Twitter website. They have created real Twitter accounts, have real usernames and passwords, and receive Twitter content through third-party applications."

Twitter has actually been trying to build an ecosystem of users, where users can plug applications into Twitter. This makes Twitter more useful to any user. And, in theory, those who interact with Twitter through social media dashboards such as Tweetdeck or Hootsuite are more important users of the Twitter website, at least more important than those who post Twitter messages directly from the application. Twitter claims that, in fact, about 11.5% of Twitter users connect to the Twitter website through third-party applications or software.

A Twitter spokesperson also cited an example, saying, "HTC phones are equipped with a software called 'Blinkfeed' that aggregates social content from various channels and displays it in a central location through applications or widgets. However, users first need to identify these services in order to automatically use these messages."

If calculated based on the ratio of 11.5%, it means that about 24 million users are always connected to the Twitter platform, but they do nothing and at most just passively receive messages.

Remember in 2013, Twitter claimed that the proportion of users passively accessing the Twitter platform through third-party applications would gradually decrease over time. However, on the contrary, the number of deadlocked users hanging on the Twitter platform without participating in any actions has only increased. Data shows that since Twitter went public, the number of zombie users has reached more than 30 million at its peak, but has recently fallen back to 24 million.

In the second quarter of 2014, Twitter adjusted the way it defines "monthly active users" who engage with Twitter through third-party apps. This is one of the reasons why the number of so-called "active" zombie users suddenly decreased during that period. Previously, Twitter had defined zombie apps as "mobile apps that automatically connect to our servers for regular updates but have no user activity or engagement." However, this statement would miss or underreport the activities of users who rely heavily on Twitter apps. Of course, the latest definition gives two data: one is the number of monthly active users from first-party apps (about 11.5%); the other is the number of users from third-party apps whose actual activities Twitter cannot detect (about 8.5%). The new definition claims that those apps "may have automatically connected to our services for regular updates, but there is no additional user engagement."

Some observers have suggested that the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament, which took place in the second and third quarters, helped Twitter grow its user base, but Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has disputed this, arguing that the World Cup simply increased user activity but did not drive monthly active user growth.

Twitter's change in how it defines users - now including those who passively connect to the site but have "no actual activity" - also seems to explain some of the growth in Twitter's monthly active users. It's also very difficult to track users who have never been active on the platform.

Data shows that in the second quarter of 2014, Twitter claimed to industry analysts that the number of users on the site had increased to 271 million, of which about 248 million users were found to have public actions by Twitter, which is close to the 260 million monthly active users previously predicted by BI. In the third quarter of 2014, Twitter claimed that the number of monthly active users on the site had reached 284 million, of which 260 million users were found to have public activities.

Twitter will release its fourth quarter 2014 earnings report on February 5, which will update the growth of Twitter's monthly active users. Crucially, industry analysts will see that Twitter's monthly active users will continue to grow without the World Cup.