Who is really using Twitter?

New figures show that while a large number of Twitter users fall into the “Gen Y” category, the service has evolved into a broadcast medium rather than a peer-to-peer network.

The research from the Participatory Marketing Network, undertaken along with Pace University, shows that 99% of consumers between the age of 18 and 24 have at least one social networking profile but only 22% say they use Twitter.

Of those Twitter users, 85% “follow” friends, 54% celebrities, 29% family members and 29% businesses.

But a separate survey from the Harvard Business School shows that 10% of all Twitter users account for 90% of its content, compared to other social networking sites where 10% of users contribute 30% of all content posted.

The study concluded that the site is becoming more of a broadcast network, rather than a peer-to-peer networking site. In fact, the study shows 75% of Twitter users have “tweeted” an average of just four times.

“In other words, the pattern of contributions on Twitter is more concentrated among the few top users than is the case on Wikipedia, even though Wikipedia is clearly not a communications tool,” the researchers said.

“This implies that Twitter resembles more of a one-way, one-to-many publishing service more than a two-way, peer-to-peer communication network.”