Twitter on mobile. Image: aradaphotography/Shutterstock
Twitter has seen an encouraging bump in users after growth slowed during summer 2017.
Twitter today (26 October) released its report for the third quarter of 2017, and it looks to have been a positive one for the company, which had seen growth stagnate in the previous few months.
Key points from Twitter’s Q3
A bump in users
Twitter reported an increase of monthly users from 326m to 330m this quarter. While it is not a massive increase, the company had been struggling to obtain new users – in Q2 of this year, Twitter reported a user number that had been unchanged from the previous quarter. This caused company shares at the time to drop as much as 13pc, according to a CNBC report.
173m people use Twitter daily. Daily active users are also up 14pc year on year, although an exact figure wasn’t disclosed by the company. This is apparently due to increased use of email and push notifications.
Miscount of user numbers
A miscount of monthly active users had been occurring since late 2014, meaning that the adjusted figures saw Twitter lose users during the summer period. The error in past user estimates was caused when Twitter wrongly counted people who logged into applications associated with the company’s Fabric software platform, which is now under the Alphabet umbrella.
A drop in revenue
Twitter’s Q3 revenue was reported as $590m, down from $616m this time last year, a drop of 4pc. However, losses narrowed to $21m as opposed to $103m during last year’s fourth quarter.
Turning a profit?
According to Fortune, Twitter’s shares have jumped nearly 8pc in pre-market trading as the company inches closer to the possibility of a unprecedented profitable quarter, based on generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Analysts had expected $587m in revenue for Q3, according to Thomson Reuters.
Harassment complaints
Twitter’s harassment problem is obvious to many users, and CEO Jack Dorsey stressed to investors that he would try and find a solution. Last week, the company released a calendar outlining how it would make Twitter a safer place. Changes will include notifying suspended users over email, suspending hate accounts that incite violence, banning hateful usernames and tackling unwanted sexual advances made on the platform.
A word from Dorsey
Dorsey said that Twitter made progress in three key areas: engagement, progress on a return to revenue growth, and record profitability. He stated: “We’re proud that the improvements we’re making to the product continue to bring people back to Twitter on a daily basis.
“It’s our job to help people stay informed about what’s happening in the world and what people are talking about, and we’re focused on making our service faster, easier to use and more relevant to more people every day.”
Twitter on mobile. Image: aradaphotography/Shutterstock
