Twitter's Users Are in Asia, but Its Revenue Is in the U.S.

                              

Twitter’s (TWTR) user growth will drop below 10 percent in the U.S. next year, and more than 40 percent of Twitter users will live in Asia in five years, according to a report published on Tuesday by EMarketer.

Slowing growth in the U.S. has been a concern since before Twitter went public late last year. It’s a major reason why the company’s stock is down about 60 percent from its December peak. While welcome, international growth comes with challenges: It’s much easier to make money from advertising in the U.S. than in the countries where Twitter is growing fastest.

By the end of this year, 32.8 percent of Twitter users will live in the Asia-Pacific region, even though EMarketer estimates no Twitter usage in China, where the microblogging service is currently blocked. Any inroads Twitter might make there would change the estimates significantly. According to eMarketer, India and Indonesia afford Twitter its fastest growth worldwide and are expected to grow 62 percent and 57 percent this year, respectively.