Twitter Rules the Photo-Sharing Roost … on Twitter [STATS]
New stats show that Twitter has taken over the picture-sharing market from third-party apps such as TwitPic and Yfrog. Third-party apps used to be the only way users could share images through the social network, however, Twitter jumped into the arena late this summer with its own uploader baked into the standard tweet box.
The official Twitter app has quickly climbed to the top. According to Skylines, a social image search site, 36.1% of photos shared on Twitter come through the official image uploader. TwitPic is in second place with 30.3% and Yfrog is in third with 21.1%. Instagram is in fourth place with just 12.5%. Its low ranking is both surprising and impressive. Instagram has quickly shot up in popularity as a premiere photo app for iOS devices. This means that while 12.5% may seem low, it’s coming only from people using iPhones or iPads. Not bad considering the three leaders work with web images and most major mobile carriers.

The stats are bad news for TwitPic, which previously held 45.7% of the picture-sharing market just five months previous. While some sites are already ringing the death knell for third-party photo apps, the stats shows that TwitPic and Yfrog are hanging in there. It is clear, however, that these apps will need to do something to differentiate their services from Twitter’s uploader if they want to survive.
Twitter’s photo-sharing win brings up the question of whether official apps and services risk killing competition and third-party innovation. This is becoming ever-more clear as Twitter ramps up its features such as URL shortening.

BONUS: Meet the Top 15 Photographers on Instagram
@mikekus: Photographer's Choice

Who: Mike Kus. A graphic designer, web designer and illustrator living in Bath.
Followers: 82,085
Photos: 451
Favorite Filter: Earlybird
How he's using Instagram: "I try to use Instagram to document my daily life and to photograph what surrounds me. I live in Bath, U.K.; so most of my pictures [are] places and people around Bath."
Inspired by: "I carry my iPhone everywhere and when I see something that interests me I take a shot. There's nothing I particularly set out to do. I like photographing architecture and people, mainly."
Click here to view this gallery.
Image courtesy of Flickr, netzkobold
More About: isntagram, photo sharing, Social Media, twitpic, Twitter, yfrog
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