eMarketer: Twitter in France has a large elderly base

Millennials rank second among French Twitter users

It’s no secret that Twitter is becoming increasingly popular in France. A recent study found a surprising trend: the trend is led by older people: users aged 55 and over. According to comScore Media Metrix, the number of users in this age group visiting Twitter reached 1.3 million, an increase of 100% in 2012.

Although social media has always been the domain of the younger generation, data shows that Twitter has a larger user group of those aged 55 and over. From a demographic perspective, the second largest group of Twitter users in France are those aged 15-24, with 1.2 million people, an increase of 62% from 2011.

According to comScore, the number of Twitter users in France reached 5.5 million in November 2012. The comScore data is based on PC visits to Twitter (excluding users who access Twitter via mobile terminals or third-party software), which may be the reason why the number of elderly users is so prominent. In France, the number of social network users on mobile terminals is huge. Although there is a large overlap between PC user groups and mobile terminal user groups, young users are more concentrated on mobile social networks.

In June 2012, comScore MobiLen data showed that the number of mobile Twitter users in France reached 1.5 million. In France, Twitter has become the second largest mobile social network after Facebook.

eMarketer estimates that the total number of French social network users in 2012 was around 21.9 million, accounting for 54% of French Internet users and 33.5% of the French population. Combining comScore statistics, almost a quarter of French social network users used Twitter in 2012.