Twitter has 100M active users, growing faster than ever

CEO Costolo says '2012 is going to be the Twitter election'

Since I have been without cable for this election cycle, I haven't been able to watch any of the GOP debates.

But in the social media era, I feel I was apprised of all the major statements, confusion, groans and promises because the people I follow on Twitter give real-time quotes and responses moment by movement. And it looks like no one knows better than Twitter CEO Dick Costolo that this year's election coverage will be most instantly covered and discovered by those on the microblogging service.

“I really think 2012 is going to be the Twitter election,” Costolo said, during his talk at D:Dive Into Media Conference Monday night.

Other than news services, bloggers, friends and comedians that love to live tweet the debates, the Republican candidates even had teams that were live tweeting rebuttals rather than entering those responses later in the evening or the next day. 

“Tomorrow morning it will be too late to react to what was said the day before,” Costolo said. “Washington is really starting to realize that.”

And it is clear that the GOP candidates know what a power social media will be for the 2012 election, especially since President Obama has only continued to beef-up his social media team and presence, even hosting a Google+ Hangout Monday afternoon with a far more youthful and casual focus.

Twitter v. Google

Costolo also spoke about the company's heated response to Google's search plus "Your World" update that dropped Twitter results and added Google+ items.

Costolo, a former Googler, expressed his concern about giving preferential treatment to its own content rather than finding the most relevant posts and content across the Web.

His position was clear, especially since Twitter consists of more than 300 billion pages and ignoring that amount of diverse content is not in the best interest of people searching the Internet.

WIth or without any Google support, Costolo is confident that Twitter is growing faster than it has ever grown before (now with 100 million active users) and believes that his company has created such a niche for itself that is doesn't compete, but rather co-exists with Google and Facebook.

Twitter on censorship

In recent days, Twitter announced that is had the capability to censor data based on the country of the readers so that certain content could be restricted and Twitter could gain usership in more markets.

Many users cried fowl at this shifting position, from the importance of free speech and sharing to accommodating various interpretations of freedoms based on country and culture. But Costolo clarified that this is a new capability that has not been put in motion and Twitter is still focused on keeping tweets as accessible as it can. 

He claimed that the company has no intention to enter or appease China, a country infamous for its censorship of web content despite how much the company would like to be in that market, the current environment is not conducive for its business.

“There has been no change in our stance in respect to content on Twitter,” he said. “We want to be able to leave the content up for as many people as possible … this is the most honest, transparent, and forward-looking way for a company to deal with.”

The Twitter top-dog also explained the company's absence from the web-wide protest of SOPA and PIPA. 

“When you’ve got an amplifier like Twitter … you don’t pull the batteries out of the microphone,” he said, pointing out that the service shared 3.9 million SOPA and PIPA-related tweets on the blackout day.

For me this response doesn't quite go far enough since some websites included more information on the homepage and pop-up windows to learn more about the legislation, without completely stopping or blacking out its service.

And what about the numbers?

Costolo didn't discuss whether or not the company could turn a profit this year or other financials but did share that the company is roughly 900 people strong and that  advertisers such as Volkswagen and Barclays are seeing better than 50% engagement rates on Twitter ads.

Also, 40% of Twitter's active users don’t tweet but do use Twitter as a source for news and staying connected with friends and celebrities.