Twitter’s user growth soars amid coronavirus, but uncertainty remains

Twitter saw a huge increase in daily users in the first quarter as people turned to the website for real-time information about the website Corona virus outbreak. Nevertheless, the uncertainty about the economy casts a shadow over the company.

In the first quarter, Twitter had 166 million active users per day viewing ads. This corresponds to an increase of 24% compared to 134 million in the same period last year, the company said on Thursday.

“For the first time in history, the whole world is focusing on learning how to solve a global problem,” said Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, in a conference call with Wall Street analysts on Thursday morning. “People turn to Twitter to stay up to date, share solutions, and ask for help and mutual support. We see that in the numbers.”

Twitter had sales of $ 808 million quarterly 3% year over year, well above the $ 775.96 million estimated by Thomson Reuters. Advertising revenue makes up the majority of it; it was $ 682 million, a slight increase over the previous year.

However, financials took a bleak turn towards the end of the quarter when Twitter felt the economic disruption of the coronavirus pandemic. Ned Segal, CFO of Twitter, said at the conference call that the company had seen a significant drop in global advertising spending. From March 11th to March 31st, Twitter’s advertising revenue fell about 27% year over year.

For the quarter as a whole, Twitter recorded a loss of 1 cent per share, exceeding the loss of 2 cents per share forecast by Wall Street analysts. This is in comparison to the positive 25 cents per share that was reported a year earlier.

At the start of trading on Thursday, Twitter shares fell around 4% to around USD 29.90.

Twitter lowered expectations in March when it pulled back its first-quarter forecast for the outbreak of the corona virus, which is slowing the economy and leading to closures worldwide. At that time, the company indicated that sales in the first quarter would decrease compared to the previous year.

Even in the first quarter Dorsey was under threat for his guidance. Paul Singer, the billionaire founder of the activist hedge fund Elliott Management, wanted to push Dorsey out of the company. The fund has reached an agreement with Twitter that Dorsey is responsible for the social network.

Looking ahead, Segal said work on rebuilding the company’s ad server system, which started in 2019, should be completed by the end of the second quarter. This is to help Twitter better address advertisers’ needs.

The company said it continues to strive to build a new data center, but timing may be affected by IT supply chain constraints and spending on existing facilities to meet higher demand for its service.

To attract more people to Twitter, Dorsey emphasized the company’s efforts to make conversations more relevant and accessible, and referred to his work on interests, topics, and lists. “For me, this is the biggest unlock for what makes someone really realize the potential of Twitter,” he said.

Dorsey also called Twitter’s experiment with “fleets” – Tweets that go away within 24 hours with no likes, retweets, or replies to be something that is more up-to-date. They were available in Brazil, where people “told us how much they like it,” he said, adding that Twitter hopes to launch them around the world as soon as possible.

Combat misinformation about coronaviruses

The pandemic, like other social networks, has forced Twitter to focus on misinformation that could affect human health and safety, such as dangerous claims that bleach drinking will cure the coronavirus.

Unlike Facebook, which works with third-party fact checkers, Twitter doesn’t have such a large team dedicated to moderating the website. Instead, it relied on automated technology to deal with misinformation. On Wednesday, Facebook reported that revenue and user numbers in the first quarter exceeded Wall Street’s expectations.

In March, Twitter said it would oblige users to do so Pull down tweets This contradicts the recommendations of local and global health authorities or promotes the use of ineffective or harmful treatments. This includes tweets that say “social distancing is not effective” and “if you can hold your breath for 10 seconds, you don’t have a corona virus,” said Twitter.

Twitter has warned This harmful coronavirus misinformation can still slip through the cracks as it prioritizes information that has the greatest potential to cause direct damage. The company has given up racist tweets against Asians.

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The rules of Twitter also apply to politicians. The company pulled two tweets past Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro This reportedly included videos of the politician questioning social detachment and quarantine measures. The company deleted a tweet from Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro for recommending the use of a “natural concoction” as a potential cure for the coronavirus.

And Twitter removed a tweet from Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, who quoted a conservative activist who incorrectly claimed that a drug called hydroxychloroquine was found to be “100% effective” in the treatment of COVID-19. There have been isolated reports that it may have some use U.S. Department of Health, but clinical studies have not shown whether the drug is effective.

Even so, Twitter has left controversial tweets from high-profile personalities. For example, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, tweeted that “children are essentially immune to COVID-19”. And Trump card called for the “liberation” of three states in which people protested the blocking of corona viruses. A message that Twitter called allowed because the comments were vague.

early April Twitter Since March 18, more than 1,100 misleading and potentially harmful tweets have been removed as new guidelines for the website’s tweets have been released.

As for the economy and how this affects Twitter, Segal warned on Thursday that the level of uncertainty was great.

“At the moment, in such a dynamic environment, it’s difficult to judge exactly how things will develop later in the year,” he said.