Data from HubSpot confirms a widely remarked trend: After a peak in growth rates in early 2009, uptake of Twitter slowed dramatically toward the end of the year.

Based on a study of user profiles on the microblogging site, HubSpot found worldwide growth was highest in March 2009, at 13%, and dropped to just 3.5% by October.

Decreased growth rates may have a positive effect, however. The user base has matured and, on average, Twitter users have been members of the site for longer, making them more engaged.

Users are following more feeds, for example, and being followed more in turn:

• In January 2010, users followed 170 profiles, on average, compared with about 45 in July 2009.
• Users had an average of 300 followers in January 2010, versus about 70 in July 2009.
• In January 2010, the average user had made 420 Twitter updates, compared with 120 in July 2009.

Twitter users were also including more complete information in their profiles, such as location, bio and Web address. Still, 82% of Twitter users have fewer than 100 followers, and 81% are following fewer than 100 people.

As Twitter matures, it is becoming more international. Sysomos reports that less than 51% of Twitter users were from the US in December 2009, down from 62.1% in June 2009. Brazil saw the greatest user growth, rising from 2% of the total in June to 8.8% in December.

emarketer.com