Twitter Concluded 2019 on a high note by reporting a strong surge in user numbers and revenue in the fourth quarter on Thursday, offsetting disappointing profits and surging its title on Wall Street.
With 152 million “monetizable” daily users between September and December 2019, the social network posted an increase of almost 21% compared to the same period last year. More than 20% of these users live in the United States, the remaining 80% being abroad.
Twitter considers its users who may be exposed to advertising on its platform or applications to be “monetizable”. The title of the group climbed nearly 15% on the New York Stock Exchange in the first exchanges.
Revenues up 11%
Turnover rose 10.9% to $ 1.01 billion, more than the 992 million expected on average. Over the full year, revenue was $ 3.46 billion for Twitter, up slightly from 2018. “2019 was a great year for Twitter”, welcomed the co – founder of the social network Jack Dorsey, who was also confident for 2020.
Twitter, however, saw its net profit cut by more than two to $ 118.77 million. Like its competitors, Twitter derives the majority of its revenue from advertising. In the fourth quarter of 2019, advertising revenue was $ 885 million, up 12% from the same period last year.
“The good performance of Twitter’s turnover shows that advertisers have confidence in the reach of the platform despite some product problems encountered earlier in the year,” notes Nazmul Islam of eMarketer.
Failed in ad targeting
When its results for the third quarter were published in October, Twitter had reported computer “mishaps” in its advertising targeting. “Their decision to ban political ads as well as the new policy against falsified media content should resonate positively among users and allow further growth in the number of users in the next quarter,” said Islam.
Jack Dorsey announced in October that Twitter would no longer accept political advertising. Twitter also unveiled this week a new initiative to reduce the spread of manipulated content and false information, including “deepfake” videos, which use hyper-realistic montages.
As the November presidential election approaches, social media giants are stepping up efforts to deal with disinformation campaigns, which affected the 2016 election.
“Misleading information is arguably the biggest challenge in our industry,” said Jack Dorsey during a conference call with analysts. “It will be the focus of our attention,” he said.
(Afp / nxp)
Created: 06.02.2020, 4:08 p.m.
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