Slow Start For App.net With Just 20,000 Users

Sites include app.net , Twitter.com . Published on September 19th, 2012. Written by Anthony West.

It was supposed to be the Twitter-killer, the new platform that would make micro-blogging fun and without the ads. But a month in, Twitter isn’t dead and the activity on App.net is so minimal, you’d be forgiven for thinking its users have no imagination.

According to a few stats collected on the progress of App.net, only 20,000 users have signed up for the service in the month since it launched. This figure of course, isn’t half bad; users after all, had to pay to get on there. But those who’ve paid, are not posting and that is the activity that drives engagement and speeds growth. According to the data, 250 users account for more than half the posts—that’s 1.25%, rather paltry if you go by the enthusiastic backing App.net received just over a month ago.

The platform’s founder had set an initial funding target of $500,000; in the end, 12,315 backers chipped in $803,000. The platform went live shortly after that and to date, users have only generated a shade over 300,000 posts—the majority of which are emanating from Twitter.

With the average post length being around 100 characters, not only are App.net users not saying much, the little they do say is abbreviated. Still, its early days and with a little more than what was required to get started, App.net could do with a few improvements here and there.