UK proves number one at tweeting outside the States

The figure, disclosed by the technology giant as it prepares to float on the New York Stock Exchange, is already more than 20 times higher than total annual overseas income three years ago, demonstrating the explosive growth of the company.

Twitter’s turnover outside America was just $1.9m (£1.2m) in the whole of 2010, rising to $4.1m (£2.6m) in 2011 and $53m (£33m) in 2012.

The figures come as the San Francisco-based firm recorded a quarterly loss of $65m (£40.7m) for the latest quarter, tripling from the same time last year, though revenues doubled to nearly $169m (£105m).

The company has swallowed losses of $483m (£302m) during its brief history as management focused on making the service more reliable and expanding its audience.

It ended September with 232m active users, up from 218m in June, with more than three-quarters of the audience outside America.

However, much of this usage comes from less affluent countries which are less attractive to the advertisers that provide Twitter’s revenue. It means the worldwide audience only supplies a quarter of the company’s turnover.

But the UK contribution represented 10 per cent of overall revenues of $422m (£264m) for the nine months to September.

Twitter said no individual country from its overseas market contributed more than 10 per cent of overall revenues in previous full years.

Overseas revenues for the period quadrupled year on year to $107m (£67m) while overall they doubled for the company as a whole.

Since Twitter was spun out of a struggling San Francisco start-up in 2006, it has grown to approximately 2,000 employees based in 15 offices around the world.

Along the way, it helped create new ways for advertisers and corporations to reach audiences to its “second screen” approach to encouraging real-time debate around television programmes.

Prominent Yorkshire Twitter users include cricketer Michael Vaughan, tourism chief Gary Verity, Leeds council CEO Tom Riordan, and politicians Ed Balls and John Prescott.