Has Twitter peaked? Or why micro blogging needs another Demi Moore bottom shot

There appear to be signs that Twitter’s astonishing rate of growth may be coming to an end. According to a study by Barracuda Networks the growth in the number of Twitter users peaked number of users peaked at nearly 20% last April, but had dropped down to 0.15% in December 2009. This ties in with data from other analytics companies which have suggested that Twitter traffic was at its highest in July 2009.

Another analytics source RJMetrics recently stated that, about 80% of all Twitter users have tweeted fewer than 10 times, about 40% of accounts have never sent a single tweet, and 25% of accounts have no followers.

Barracuda’s chief research officer, Paul Judge, attributes the slow down to the end of what he calls Twitter red carpet era, the time when celebrities flocked to the micro blogging service. This era kicked off when Ashton Kutcher tweeted a picture of his wife, Demi Moore’s, bottom. Kutcher soon collected a million followers on Twitter and inspired other celebs on both sides of the Atlantic to start micro blogging.

Any ideas for a Twitpic that might reignite Twitter growth – send to twitter.com/ev