You might not be able to tell, but Twitter is not having a good time.
Twitter’s earnings report for the fourth quarter have revealed that the companies Monthly Active Users (MAUs) have dropped from 307 million MAUs to 305 million — symptoms of a really bad cold.
The report also shows that Twitter’s active user base has flatlined, it had 320 million active monthly users this quarter, the same as last quarter. Clearly Kanye’s rants, amongst others, have not helped to draw audiences.
The report is not all bad though, financials continue to grow, reporting a revenue of $710 million and a net loss of $90 million. Comparing those figures to the same quarter last year, revenue grew by 90 per cent, while net losses shrunk by 27 per cent. Twitter has also said that its base of advertisers has improved from 130,000, a sprout of 90 per cent from the year before.
Despite the concerns revealed by the report, the company is hopeful:
“We saw a decline in monthly active usage in Q4, but we’ve already seen January monthly actives bounce back to Q3 levels. We’re confident that, with disciplined execution, this growth trend will continue over time,” the company wrote in a shareholder letter.
The company is clearly scrambling to reverse these figures and grow users by introducing a ‘best tweets’ feature which is shown at the top of the feed before the standard chronological feed begins. Rumours are circulating that the company plans to further adjust their timeline layout to work more like Facebook’s, a change that could be quite controversial. Another attempt to improve the company came from CEO Jack Dorsey, who showed who’s boss by removing four top executives earlier last month. The company is also following the live video trend, releasing their Periscope app earlier this year.
Whatever they do, it has to be something otherwise Twitter will become irrelevant. And it’ll have to work hard as the competition is stiff: Facebook only continues to grow, and Snapchat, WhatsApp and Instagram are also casting a shadow over the company.
It would be a shame to lose Twitter, the rate at which it can spit out relevant, current and important topics and news is impressive to say the least. Ordinary people can connect with anyone in the world, but even more interestingly, to celebrities directly. The company has also given an invaluable tool for aspiring and citizen journalists, not all agree this is a good thing, but either way it seems to be the way of the future.
Hang in there Twitter!
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