Twitter's user growth soars amid coronavirus pandemic

Twitter reported its first quarter results on Thursday morning.

James Martin / CNET

For the latest corona virus pandemic news and information, visit WHO website.

Twitter added daily users in the first quarter as users turned to the website during the year for real-time information Corona virus outbreak, a growth spurt that gave the service the ability to show more digital ads.

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

In the first quarter that ended on March 31, Twitter had sales of $ 808 millionThis is an increase of 3% over the previous year and is 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.

The company recorded a loss of 1 cent per share, exceeding the loss of 2 cents per share forecast by Wall Street analysts.

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.

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

“In this difficult time, Twitter is more important than ever. We help the world stay up to date and offer people a unique way to get together to help or just chat and remind each other of our connections.” Dorsey said a statement. “Our job now is to make sure we stay connected to the many people new to Twitter over the long term.”

Even in the first quarter Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey also faced a threat to his leadership. Paul Singer, the billionaire founder of the activist hedge fund Elliott Management, may have wanted to drive Dorsey out of the company. The fund has reached an agreement with Twitter that Dorsey is responsible for the social network.

In premarket trading, Twitter stocks rose more than 1% to approximately $ 31.50.

Combat misinformation about coronaviruses

The pandemic, like other social networks, has forced Twitter to focus on misinformation that could affect users’ health and safety, such as the claim that drinking bleach 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, the company 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 announced that users must access tweets that contradict local and global health agency recommendations, or encourage 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 that harmful coronavirus misinformation could still slip through the cracks by prioritizing information that has the greatest potential to cause direct damage. The company has left racist tweets for Asians.

The rules of Twitter also apply to politicians. The company released two tweets from Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, which 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 HealthHowever, clinical studies are still required to prove this whether the drug is effective.

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

In April, Twitter announced that more than 1,100 misleading and potentially harmful tweets had been removed since March 18, when new guidelines for the website’s tweets were published.