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 While Twitter doesn't break down country figures, Global Web Index
data shows Indonesia remains joint first with Mexico in active users
among the 34 countries the UK-based metrics company monitors - and
significantly ahead in terms of penetration, at 74 percent of all
Internet users.
But that masks a deeper shift, analysts and users say, as changing
tastes, culture and politics push Indonesians to rival services. The
proportion of active Twitter users in Indonesia has dipped 10
percentage points in the past two years, to about one third of
Internet users, the Global Web Index data show.
"Unless Twitter makes changes or there's some new exciting things on
Twitter that can't be found on other platforms then I don't think
people are coming back to Twitter," said Enda Nasution, a blogger
and entrepreneur who has nearly 200,000 followers on his Twitter
account.
A Twitter spokesman declined to comment on the data, saying he had
not seen it, but said younger people in major markets like Indonesia
and India were eager users. He said the company was expanding in
Indonesia and working with airlines, banks and celebrities to add
services and content.
He noted Indonesia was one of the top markets for Twitter's recent
acquisition Periscope, which allows users to stream live video.
Twitter on Wednesday reported its first quarter since going public
with no growth in users, and announced changes to its global
service.
Among younger users - active Twitter users in the 16-24 year age
range - Indonesia lags Spain, Mexico and the UK. JakPat, an
Indonesian survey company, found last month that teenagers were less
likely to use Twitter regularly than those aged 26 and above, and
were switching to other apps such as Facebook and its photosharing
sibling Instagram.
But there's also a push factor: Indonesians are leery of Twitter's
core appeal; its default public feed, where everything a user posts
is visible to everyone on the network. What was once an attraction
in Indonesia's sociable culture became a liability in 2014's
fractious presidential election.
FISTICUFFS
As politicians saw the power of Twitter to mobilize support, the
network was flooded by digital armies of volunteers and automated
accounts, or bots, spawning what Shafiq Pontoh, chief strategic
officer at Jakarta-based social media consultancy Provetic,
described as a "tsunami" of "black campaigns, hoaxes, prejudice,
racism, spam, harassment, anonymous accounts and political action to
frame topics, issues (and) spin doctoring."
"Twitter," he said, "became an uncomfortable place to be."
This antagonism hit rock bottom when two Twitter users took a
dispute over government car-making policies offline and slugged it
out near a sports stadium. Cellphone footage of their fist-fight was
broadcast on TV.
"After that it felt like that if you don't want to get into trouble,
people would retreat and find a more comfortable space online," said
Nasution, the entrepreneur.
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Those online spaces include Facebook's WhatsApp and Messenger apps,
South Korean Kakao's Path, Japan's Naver Corp's LINE and
BlackBerry's Messenger.
Nasution said students he has spoken to use WhatsApp to communicate
with their lecturer, and LINE to chat with each other. Or Facebook
and Path, says student Jeremiah Mandey, who joined Twitter in 2010.
"I used Twitter to interact with friends, but now I use it to get
news," he said.
MISSING A CULTURAL BEAT
Government departments, companies and even President Joko Widodo
have embraced Twitter as a public announcement service. The Jakarta
police traffic feed, alerting commuters to jams, accidents, potholes
and protests, has over 5 million followers.
This provides a service, but is too passive for younger people, says
Aulia Masna, an editor. "People are on social media to have fun and
be entertained," he says. "Twitter in Indonesia is better known as
the place for news, debate and politics. So it attracts the more
serious, older crowd."
The company spokesman said Twitter opened a Jakarta office last year
and added staff, in part to expand its user base beyond the capital.
The recruits included a government relations expert. It was also
working with local bank BNI to allow customers to transact via
Twitter.
"We see great potential in Indonesia, it's one of the top markets,"
he said, adding Widodo was due to visit Twitter's headquarters in
San Francisco next week.
Simon Kemp, regional managing partner of social media marketing
agency We Are Social, said Twitter should focus more on
understanding how people in places like Indonesia use their service
before tweaking things.
"People are still looking at these things as a technology base," he
said, "while it's the cultural driver that determines what you use
and when you use it."
(Corrects in 6th paragraph to say Twitter, not Facebook, recently
acquired Periscope)
(Reporting by Jeremy Wagstaff, with additional reporting by Cindy
Silviana and Yuddy Cahya in Jakarta; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)
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