Twitter (TWTR) User Growth is Growing, but Many Aren't Even Human

What are Twitter's (NYSE: TWTR) real numbers?

According to its recent 10-Q filing with the U.S. SEC, as noted by Engadget, about 8.5 percent of all Twitter users could be 'bots', or third-party applications. That amounts to around 23 millions users.

The following is an excerpt from Twitter's 10-Q:

Our metrics are also affected by third-party applications that automatically contact our servers for regular updates with no user action involved, and this activity can cause our system to count the users associated with such applications as active users on the day or days such contact occurs. Historically we tracked and reported in this section all users who accessed Twitter through third-party applications. We have reviewed and refined our processes, however, to calculate a new metric that is comprised of only such active users who have used applications with the capability to automatically contact our servers for regular updates where there was no discernable user action involved. In the three months ended June 30, 2014, approximately 11% of all active users solely used third-party applications to access Twitter. However, only up to approximately 8.5% of all active users used third party applications that may have automatically contacted our servers for regular updates without any discernable additional user-initiated action. The calculations of MAUs presented in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q may be affected as a result of automated activity.

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