The micro-blogging site announced revenue of 569 million dollars (£371 million) for the quarter, which beat the analyst predictions, however the lack of movement in user numbers meant the firm’s stock dropped 9% immediately after the earnings announcement.
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Twitter lost $132m during the company’s third quarter, with the total now at around $2bn. But that might not be enough for investors, and, Twitter has lowered its revenue projections for the coming quarter from $740 million to somewhere in the ballpark of $695 million and $710 million.
During the conference call with investors, co-founder and newly appointed CEO Jack Dorsey emphasized that Twitter was focusing on becoming more disciplined and efficient, simplifying its services and better communicating its values.
Twitter became a popular tool for companies to handle customer service early in its existence, but it is now facing competition from Facebook’s Messenger service, which also aspires to be the main gateway through which consumers and companies resolve issues. The stock exhibited somewhat of a rebound by the time markets closed, at $30.85. So here’s a couple about Twitter right now: 307 million monthly active users, with just 3 million added since June.
Twitter, likewise, is making tweets more visible to Web surfers who aren’t logged into its network – through a new search partnership with Google.
It’s still too soon to predict how Twitter’s weeks-old news aggregation feature Moments will affect user growth, but executives pinned much of the company’s hope on such recent innovations, including live video-streaming service Periscope.
“Moments represents a real shift in our thinking”, Dorsey said during the call.
User growth will depend on the execution of those projects and Mr. Dorsey’s ability to find time to lead those efforts, analysts said.
This is Twitter’s first earnings report since Jack Dorsey returned in early October as its permanent chief executive.
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Bernstein believes that the monthly active users (MAUs) continue to face slow growth globally and there is very limited chance that they can bounce back in a short period despite of having a mass marketing campaign launched recently. Following the release of the company’s quarterly results, Twitter’s stock fell a few 12 percent in after-hours trading. He remains by far Square’s largest shareholder with a 24 percent stake in that San Francisco company, which is located a block away from Twitter’s headquarters.
