Study Says Twitter Is Fastest-Growing Social Platform in the World

Twitter is now the fastest-growing social platform on the planet, beating Facebook and Google+ for the top spot, new research suggests.

The number of active users on the microblogging service grew 40% from the second quarter to the fourth quarter of 2012 -- equal to 288 million monthly active users, according to Global Web Index, a syndicated market-research service on web behavior and social media. (The index assessed 31 markets, and defines "active" as those who claim to "have used or contributed to Twitter in the past month.")

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In July 2009, it estimated that Twitter only had 35.47 million monthly active users. Since then, the social network has seen an impressive growth rate of 714%.

Users are also more engaged, with 59% of account holders now active on a monthly basis.

Overall, 21% of the worldwide Internet population now actively uses Twitter on a monthly basis. For a more detailed look at the study, watch the video, above.

Which social network do you use the most? Tell us in the comments below.