Twitter Gains 2m Users But Loses $457m

Although Twittter's current significance in electoral politics is unquestioned, the social media platform's business model is under critical scrutiny.

Shares in Twitter have slumped after the tech company suffered a decline in advertising income, despite a rise in user numbers as Donald Trump’s high-profile tweeting helped to advertise the platform’s influence.

Jack Dorsey, chief executive and co-founder, hailed the growing “impact and influence” of Twitter, saying the US president had “boosted the power” of the service.

But investors took fright as the loss-making company conceded that its financial growth was lagging behind its increasing popularity among users and would continue to do so in the near future.

The San Francisco-based company reported annual revenues up 14% on last year to $2.5bn (£2bn). Monthly active users climbed from 317 million to 319 million in the final quarter of last year.

While Twitter trumpeted an increase in users and time spent on the site, revenues increased by less than analysts had forecast.

However, the tech company is still making sizeable losses, falling $457m into the red during 2016 despite cutting 9% of its workforce, or about 350 people. Its shares fell by more than 11% to $16.54 in early trading on Wall Street after the disappointing set of figures were revealed.

Twitter has now racked up losses of almost $2.8bn since it floated on the stock market three years ago, at $26 a share, and the latest figures deal a blow to the company’s plan to turn a profit by the end of 2017.

One figure that will give cause for concern among investors is a fall in advertising revenue in the fourth quarter, down to $638m from $641m in the same period of last year. This was largely because of a slump in revenues in the US, which wiped out gains in Twitter’s international markets.

The company had reported an increase in advertising revenue in the first three quarters of the year, before the trend reversed in the final three months. This was largely down to a 5% slump in revenues in the US to $440m, a fall that wiped out a 12% rise to $277m in its international markets.

“We haven’t made the progress we anticipated over the last year in some direct response ad formats,” Twitter said in a stock market filing, admitting that its “promoted tweet” advertising had been hit by competition.
And the company offered a gloomy picture of the trajectory for advertising income, warning that “revenue growth will continue to lag audience growth in 2017 and could now be further impacted by escalating competition for digital ad spending”.

Dorsey said he believed weaker advertising income was partly down to a delayed impact from 2015, when user numbers dipped, limiting the amount advertisers were prepared to spend. The number of monthly users had picked up slightly since then, rising 3% in 2016 compared with 1% in 2015, and Dorsey said he believed advertising revenue would catch up.

“We do believe that it’s a matter of when, not if,” he said, admitting that increasing revenue would take time.

Dorsey said Twitter would scrap less lucrative initiatives and focus on “putting our resources behind those products that have the greatest chance of success”, such as live video-streaming.

In an apparent curtailing of its ambitions, the company referred to “progress towards profitability in 2017”, having talked earlier in the financial year of “driving toward profitability in 2017”. But there were signs of improvement ahead as cash flow increased to $440m from $5m in 2015. The company is also making progress in the amount it spends on paying staff in stock, which has fallen to 24% of revenue and is slated to fall to 20% in 2017.

The company also promised to step up efforts to combat online abuse on the social media platform. “Making Twitter safer is a primary focus in 2017, and we are approaching safety with a greater sense of urgency,” it said. “We’ve rolled out a number of product changes already in the first quarter, and this focus will continue until we’ve made a significant impact.”

Guardian

Stop Arguing On Social Media:      Botnets Have Infiltrated The Twitterverse:

 

 

« Banks Around The World Hit With Fileless Malware
Behavior Analytics Will Leapfrog Security »

Infosecurity Europe
CyberSecurity Jobsite
Perimeter 81

Directory of Suppliers

Alvacomm

Alvacomm

Alvacomm offers holistic VIP cybersecurity services, providing comprehensive protection against cyber threats. Our solutions include risk assessment, threat detection, incident response.

ManageEngine

ManageEngine

As the IT management division of Zoho Corporation, ManageEngine prioritizes flexible solutions that work for all businesses, regardless of size or budget.

Jooble

Jooble

Jooble is a job search aggregator operating in 71 countries worldwide. We simplify the job search process by displaying active job ads from major job boards and career sites across the internet.

LockLizard

LockLizard

Locklizard provides PDF DRM software that protects PDF documents from unauthorized access and misuse. Share and sell documents securely - prevent document leakage, sharing and piracy.

CSI Consulting Services

CSI Consulting Services

Get Advice From The Experts: * Training * Penetration Testing * Data Governance * GDPR Compliance. Connecting you to the best in the business.

Feitian Technologies

Feitian Technologies

Feitian Technologies provides authentication and transaction security products for financial institutions, telecoms, government and leading business enterprises.

Gigasoft

Gigasoft

Gigasoft provide secure online data backup & cloud backup services for the education sector and businesses.

Owl Cyber Defense

Owl Cyber Defense

Owl patented DualDiode Technology enables hardware-enforced network segmentation and deterministic, one-way transfer of all data types and file sizes.

Mastercard

Mastercard

MasterCard is a leading global payments solutions company that serves consumers and businesses in over 210 countries and territories worldwide.

Verve Industrial

Verve Industrial

Verve specialize in providing software and services to help protect and secure critical industrial control systems.

Towergate Insurance

Towergate Insurance

Towergate Insurance is a leading UK specialist insurance broker. Business products include Cyber Liability Insurance.

Sabasai

Sabasai

Sabasai specialises in all aspects of insider threat management from training and education to building security frameworks and insider threat programs to on-site risk & vulnerability assessments.

PRESENSE Technologies

PRESENSE Technologies

PRESENSE Technologies specializes in monitoring and enforcing IT security policies at critical points in the network and on end systems.

The Security Company (TSC)

The Security Company (TSC)

The Security Company is a leading provider of creative employee security awareness programmes.

Client Solution Architects (CSA)

Client Solution Architects (CSA)

Client Solution Architects (CSA) is a leading digital transformation consulting firm focused on the U.S. Defense Department and all U.S. Federal enterprise information technology service areas.

Network Perception

Network Perception

Network Perception proactively and continuously assures the security of critical OT assets with intuitive network segmentation verification and visualization.

TPx Communications

TPx Communications

TPx is a leading managed services provider offering a full suite of managed IT, unified communications, network connectivity and security services.

Herzing College

Herzing College

Herzing College Ottawa offers an accelerated 12-month Cybersecurity Specialist training program. This program is developed by industry experts and based on leading IT security certifications.

CertiProf

CertiProf

CertiProf has been enhancing professional lives since 2015, offering a wide range of IT certifications and agile framework training.

Rhymetec

Rhymetec

Rhymetec are an industry leader in cloud security, providing innovative cybersecurity and data privacy services to the modern-day SaaS business.

Hexiosec

Hexiosec

Hexiosec (formerly Red Maple Technologies) is a technical consultancy and product company founded and run by engineers from the UK Intelligence and Defence communities.