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Also, those numbers actually suggest that by far the most active language group (relatively speaking) on twitter are the Dutch speakers, who are almost all Europeans. Actually, I thought the number and growth for Dutch had to be a mistake, but other sources [1] do suggest the same trends. I'm still sceptical about the numbers though, especially German being hardly used seems at odds with older data about twitter usage [2].

[1]http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2011/4/T... [2]http://blog.sysomos.com/2010/01/14/exploring-the-use-of-twit...

Yes and no. No: in France at least, very few people use it. Yes: those who do use it in France, use it to talk people internationally (ie. in English).

So what do the French use for talking to fellow Frenchmen? (Like QQ for Chinese).

This is correct. A lot of Twitter users from Germany I know tweet in English to get in contact with people from all over the world.