Why Plurk Is More Popular Than Twitter In Singapore
February 12, 2009 – 12:44 am | by Daryl TayProf. Michael blogged yesterday about a Hitwise article pointing to much higher (1.5x) more visits to Plurk than Twitter recently in Singapore, and has attracted more traffic since July of 2008.
This data (though I do have some questions about it which I will blog about tomorrow) seems to validate what I’ve been feeling intuitively over the last six months or so. If I had to point to reasons, I have broadly speaking, two:
1) Twitter failed us
Looking back, my very first post on my switch to Plurk was on the 3rd of June, 2008. The blog post even leads with
Twitter’s downtime over the last couple of months has really pissed off a lot of people, most of all me.
With that timeframe in mind, let’s look at Hitwise’s research:
Plurk vs Twitter Visits
The image clearly shows the surge in visits occurs somewhere around the 28th of June. A reasonable enough time for a technology to diffuse down the adoption curve.
2) Localisation and Intimacy
When I first wrote about the switch to Plurk I had four main reasons:
- Threaded conversations and cliques
- Organic conversations
- More intimate conversations
- Timeless conversations
Now that I’ve been using Plurk for awhile, these reasons have compressed into two: intense localisation and intimacy. My theory is Singaporeans don’t need the wide reaches of Twitter. Because of our relatively smaller size as a country, we’re used to smaller interactions, which is perfect for what Plurk achieves. I think most people have less than 100 friends, which makes following easy. This is different from the Twitter “power users” in the US, as following 5,000 friends on Plurk would probably literally send someone insane.
The second theory is that by nature of Plurk consisting of small, threaded, intimate conversations, it lends itself naturally to a very high level of localisation. When you join Plurk and realise the Singaporean users are talking about local places, local weather, the movie releases in Singapore and what’s on television, it has a much more relevant feel than Twitter (were you on Twitter during the recent Superbowl?) and as a result presents a very, very low barrier to entry.
Recently a few people from SMU joined Plurk, and while I would never have imagined them on Twitter, I think Plurk works perfectly, especially when there are friends you know using the service already.
In closing, I think Singaporeans are terribly practical, and have no issues with community migration on a small scale (let’s not talk about migrating 500 friends on Facebook). The first factor, Twitter failing, led to the search for an alternative. What many of us found, is the second factor – a level of relevancy and community that Twitter did not offer. In short, the new application provided a better alternative, and most of us have never looked back.
If you’re a Plurk user in Singapore, do you agree? How about if you’re a die-hard Twitter user? Let’s hear it!
Tags: adoption curve, community migration, facebook, hitwise, intimacy, localisation, michael netzley, organic conversations, Plurk, superbowl, threaded conversations, twitter, twitter fail
18 Responses to “Why Plurk Is More Popular Than Twitter In Singapore”
By Jerrick on Feb 12, 2009 | Reply
The thing is, I still use Twitter to blast my entries to Facebook, coz Plurk is not really very good for that. WRT site visits the problem with exponential rises, this can also mean exponential falls. Hope Plurk won’t make any mistakes. *why don’t they sell ads btw?*
By Daryl Tay on Feb 12, 2009 | Reply
@Jerrick: Indeed that cross-functionality is one that doesn’t exist (yet), but one might feel it’s easier to code that in, than for Twitter to retool the way users interactive to include threaded conversations. Good question about the ads, I have no idea about monetisation either.
By iammyy on Feb 12, 2009 | Reply
Still waiting/hoping for Plurk to enable sms-updates like twitter ! then again, the function seems pointless if Plurk is mainly meant for threaded conversations unlike twitter which is more like “news flash” to me. Sometimes Plurk gets too “informal/sociable” whereas I can still find interesting reads and information that may be useful on Twitter. I think both are just targeted at different audience?
By Daryl Tay on Feb 12, 2009 | Reply
@iammyy: Yeah for sure different interests too, which is another reason why I think it resonates locally (though a small reason). The local blogosphere still seems to prefer “fun” uses of online apps as opposed to “serious” and complicated onces (hence the almost negligible appearance of Friendfeed)
By coleman on Feb 12, 2009 | Reply
plurk isn’t necessarily more popular, since many twitter users use 3rd party tools/sites instead of directly accessing the twitter site.
By Daryl Tay on Feb 12, 2009 | Reply
@Coleman: Correct. As I mentioned in the post there are some uncertainties I have in the measurement of the data, and I have that highlighted in the post coming up later today.
By Aaron Koh on Feb 12, 2009 | Reply
I predict that Plurk will help to filter out the mundane chatter from Twitter.
Most of those following me on Twitter made up mostly of professionals in the social media space.
It is going to be like Linked-in for professionals and Facebook for friends.
By Mark on Feb 12, 2009 | Reply
Today is the first day I’d heard of Plurk!
By Kevin Lim on Feb 13, 2009 | Reply
Good thoughts. I’ve been watching the phenomena as well, but I think of Plurk’s adoption in Singapore as culturally driven.
For instance, in terms of territorial establishment (e.g. How Orkut is strangely adopted largely by Brazilians and Indians) as well as how it Asian societies tend to be collectivist (cliques-oriented) vs. individualist (western trait); explaining the different modalities of conversation.
Pragmatically, the twitter experience in Singapore isn’t the same as in the U.S., where SMS functionality and third-party integration is more prevalent. This is why twitter makes more sense to me here, and if I were to return to Singapore, it would be something I’d stand to lose.
By Hannah on Feb 13, 2009 | Reply
Kevin – your comments are very interesting.
I’m living in Singapore but I feel compelled to use Twitter over Plurk in order to keep up with my friends all around the world – the majority of them living in “western trait” countries.
I don’t know anyone on Plurk…if I join will you guys say hello to me?!
By Daryl Tay on Feb 13, 2009 | Reply
@Hannah: Yes definitely. Twitter provides the reach, but I feel Plurk provides the depth. When I Tweet I have to be conscious that 2/3 of my followers are not from Singapore, but on Plurk I can use terms like Ang Mo Kio (or even just AMK) without the worry that my followers won’t know what I’m talking about =)
By ShockCake on Feb 13, 2009 | Reply
Hmmmm… both Google trends and approximate search volume for “twitter” VS “plurk” still indicate twitter as the rising star in Singapore.
And if I’m not wrong, Hitwise’s data come from just one local ISP and this leaves room for debate.
Nevertheless, your key reasons – localisation and intimacy – for using plurk have prompted me to take a look at plurk seriously.
By Daryl Tay on Feb 13, 2009 | Reply
@ShockCake: Do you have a link to that? I would love to check that out =) Yeah as I mentioned in a later post, there are many issues surrounding measuring such data and sometimes we don’t know if it’s really apples to apples. That said, I tend to take imperfect data over no data and try to make sense of it, but of course, knowing the limitations.
By Ephraim Loy on Feb 13, 2009 | Reply
I think it is because of the community. I realised that there are so many new people that I can interact with now. As for Twitter, I use it with my mobile to update my Facebook when I am not at my laptop.
By ShockCake on Feb 16, 2009 | Reply
@Daryl: Here’s the link that you have requested.
http://www.google.com.sg/trends?q=plurk%2C+twitter&ctab=0&geo=SG&date=all&sort=1
By gen on Dec 9, 2009 | Reply
plurk is ?
it just becomes boring if you don’t have friends on it.