What is a spot on the Twitter suggested user list worth? If you are TechCrunch, you just found out. In the wake of the TwitterGate document scandal (with TechCrunch airing Twitter’s dirty laundry for all to see), TechCrunch was pulled from the list. To what effect? Well, to begin with, they will shortly be under 1,000,000 followers again. What else? Oh, its arch rivals remain on the list, possibly giving a free competitive edge over the venerable TechCrunch. Let’s take a look at the numbers.
It was never officially reported that TechCrunch was removed from the list. The closest that we got was a Robert Scoble-led discussion on the topic. Still, it is plain that they have been, and you can see the proof. Take a look at this chart (via @TwitterCounter, thank you) showing the Twitter trends for @RWW, @Mashable, and @TechCrunch. Note that all three rise at similar rates, and then TechCrunch flattens:
If that is not damning, then there is no such thing as a smoking gun. If you mouse over the dates, you will find that it was either on the 30th of July, or the 1st o August. TwitterCounter is pretty inexact, but the removal happened at the end of July, and was definitely effective starting on the 1st of August. This is actually quite logical: the fiasco between TechCrunch and Twitter was in the middle of July, so Twitter waited two weeks, then gave them the boot, perhaps to limit the discussion of direct retaliation in anger. C’mon, we all know what happened.
That out of the way, what effect has this had on TechCrunch and its competitors? Fortunately, we have that information as well. Enter Compete.com and all the good things that it does. Take a look at this graph for the last 3 months of Traffic. The time frame covers June, July, and August, up until the first of September:
In July TechCrunch suffered a mild traffic decline, even in the face of the seemingly endless pageviews from the TwitterGate saga. Take a look at August, TechCrunch’s first month away from the suggested user list. Result: a loss of nearly 80,000 unique visitors. Nothing to scoff at, even for such a large site. Another month on the list for Mashable? An increase of over 100,000 unique visitors. Impressive.
Of course, Mashable has had more unique visitors than TechCrunch (according to Compete) since June, but the differential has grown, and the trend is only increasing. Mashable has picked up over 200,000 Twitter followers in the mean time, a difference that will only continue to aid them. And do not forget, right now TechCrunch is losing Twitter followers, while RWW and Mashable continue too accumulate them by the bucket.
Twitter has spoken.
Of course, it is hard to blame them, TechCrunch has never pulled punches, even on the media darling that Twitter is. Wincing from two black eyes, one from TechCrunch and the other from the Facebook development team, it is hard to not understand why they didn’t pull TechCrunch. I would have done it sooner. Twitter has told the entire blogging community one thing: abuse us at your own risk. It makes Arrington seem even more cowboy-esque, and Twitter just a bit more powerful. We’ll look at the numbers next month when September data comes in. But, you already know what you are going to see.
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Mashable declined politely to comment on this post. TechCrunch was still too hungover from the TC50 to get back to us in time.
