Twitter loses users in U.S. as revenue declines

July 27, 2017 14

Allen Cone,
United Press International Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) — Twitter, the social media powerhouse, had stagnant worldwide growth of users last quarter and lost users in the United States.

Twitter, in an financial filing Thursday, said its monthly user base in the United State declined two million to 68 million from the previous quarter.

Twitter loses users in US as revenue declines — Twitter lost users in the United States and its revenue declined, according to second-quarter financial information posted by the social media giant. (Image by PiXXart/Shutterstock)

Globally, the number of users stayed at 328 million.

From the same period a year earlier, the company’s revenue fell 5 percent to $574 million.

Twitter’s adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, were $178 million, or 31 percent of the company’s total revenue — compared with $175 million or 29 percent of revenue in last year’s second quarter.

For the third quarter, the adjusted EBITDA is projected to be between $130 million and $150 million — between 25 percent and 26 percent of revenue.

Twitter, in a letter to investors, said product changes made “positive contributions” to user growth, but were “offset … by lower seasonal benefits and other factors,” CNN reported.

Twitter noted its daily active user base grew 12 percent from the same quarter a year ago, but it didn’t reveal the number.

“Our focus has been on daily active usage,” Anthony Noto, Twitter’s chief operating officer, said on a conference call with analysts. “We believe we have content that’s relevant to everyone in the world and it’s relevant every day.”

Though revenue declined, Noto said in a news release that Twitter is pleased with “strong growth in video,” the company’s “largest and fastest growing ad format.”

“We remain focused on growing revenue by improving the performance and measurement of our revenue products, tapping into new channels of demand and continuing to grow our data licensing revenue,” Noto said in the release.

Fellow social media giant Facebook on Wednesday reported revenue of $9.2 billion for the June quarter, up 47 percent from the same period a year earlier. However, that is its slowest growth in nearly two years. Since going public in 2012, its highest revenue growth was 71.6 percent in 2014.

There were 2.01 billion monthly active Facebook users as of June 30 — an increase of 17 percent from last year. There were 1.32 billion daily active users on average for June 2017 — an increase of 17 percent year-over-year.

“You have zero user growth versus Facebook reporting 70 million new users,” Aegis Capital internet analyst Victor Anthony said Thursday on CNBC’s Squawk Box. “It’s not a recipe for a stock you want to buy.”

Shares of Twitter remain well below its initial public offering price of $26 in 2013 on the New York Stock Exchange — at $17.19, down 12.3 percent two hours after the opening bell Thursday.

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