Twitter revenues fall while user numbers stay static at 328m

27 Jul 2017

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in Dublin earlier this year. Image: Julien Behal

Twitter beats analyst expectations, but turnaround depending on audience growth fails to materialise.

Social media giant Twitter reported Q2 revenues of $574m, down 4.7pc on last year.

The company’s losses also widened to $116m due to a $55m write-down of the value of its investment in German audio platform SoundCloud.

‘We’re encouraged by the progress we’re making, executing against our top revenue, generating priorities as we focus on making Twitter the best place to see and share what’s happening’
– JACK DORSEY

Monthly active users were up 5pc to 328m, but static compared with previous reports. Average daily active users were up 12pc year over year.

Meanwhile, advertising revenue fell 8pc year over year to $489m, from $535m a year ago.

“We’re strengthening our execution, which gives us confidence that our product improvements will continue to contribute to meaningful increases in daily active usage,” said CEO Jack Dorsey.

“We’re also encouraged by the progress we’re making, executing against our top revenue, generating priorities as we focus on making Twitter the best place to see and share what’s happening, where you can see every side and perspective.”

Growth in video

Twitter is well aware that it needs to bring revenue growth in line with user growth.

Anthony Noto, Twitter’s COO, said: “We continue to invest in revenue products and services that leverage Twitter’s unique value proposition and are delivering more value to advertisers than ever, with double-digit growth in daily active usage, improvements in ad relevance and better pricing.

“We’re proud of our strong growth in video, which remained our largest and fastest-growing ad format, and we received a positive response from advertisers around the live premium video content debuted at Twitter’s Digital Content NewFronts.

“We remain focused on growing revenue by improving the performance and measurement of our revenue products, tapping into new channels of demand and continuing to grow our data licensing revenue,” said Noto.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com