Social media giant Twitter reported lower than expected user growth in its first quarter, despite the company’s efforts to fight “misinformation” on the platform, which it has touted as the key to increase user engagement.
CNET reports that social media site Twitter did not attract as many users in the first quarter as Wall Street expected, despite the company’s renewed dedication to fighting “misinformation” and “online abuse” on the platform. Twitter said the number of daily users who can see ads on the platform increase to 199 million, an increase of 20 percent compared to the same period last year.
Twitter did see its daily users grow by 7 million compared to the fourth quarter. But, the company’s user numbers were still lower than the expected 206.46 million estimated by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. Twiter’s stock was down 11 percent to $57.65 per share in after-hours trading this week.
The company did slightly beat expectations for first-quarter earnings and revenue. Twitter posted $1.04 billion in revenue in the first quarter which beat analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. Twitter earned 16 cents per share, beating Wall Street’s expectations of 14 cents per share. Including expenses, Twitter lost 1 cent per share which was better than the expected loss of 3 cents per share forecast by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.
In a conference call, Twitter CFO Ned Segal noted that brands had a slower start at the beginning of the year due to the Capitol Hill riots. Larger events were pushed further out due to the coronavirus pandemic as well. Segal noted that advertisers “often pause when there’s a more important conversation than the conversation around their product.”
Twitter did see a surge in usage largely due to the pandemic and is expected user growth rates to be in the “low double digits” this year. Twitter also anticipates that Apple’s iOS 14.5 update which includes the Tracking Transparency feature will have a “modest impact” on the platform.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com
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