Twitter has posted its first quarter earnings and they are noticeably less than the analysts predicted. The company earned $595 million, which fell far short of the $607.8 million expected by industry analysts. Twitter showed a net loss for the quarter of $80 million. Although the company did grow its earnings by 36%, the disappointing figures highlight Twitter’s ongoing problems in engaging advertising revenue and users.
Over the quarter, Twitter gained 5 million users to reach a total of 310 million. Such a gain managed to erase the trend last quarter of declining users, yet it does not reflect well on the company.
As the chart illustrates, Twitter’s audience growth is almost stagnant, especially when compared to the fast growing audiences of Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram. The numbers emphasise Twitter’s pressing concern with declining interest from users and advertisers.
The company has failed to widen the appeal of its service, as is evident in the forecasts. Twitter is predicted to snag 7.9% of social network advertising business this year, compared to Facebook’s expected 67.9%. These problems have led Twitter’s stock to fall more than 12%, adding to the almost 20% drop in stock this year.
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