Twitter’s first-quarter revenues have actually provided the business factor to sing a pleased tune.
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Twitter is skyrocketing high as users flock to the social media network amidst its efforts to punish violent material and make the platform a more enjoyable location to be.
On Tuesday, Twitter stated that regular monthly active users increased to 330 million in the very first quarter from 321 million users in the 4th quarter. From now on, though, Twitter will stop reporting regular monthly active users, which had actually been its standard for engagement.
Instead, the business will report daily active users. Roughly 134 million users visited to Twitter every day, a boost of 8 million compared to the 126 million the business reported in the 4th quarter. Twitter stated its day-to-day active users aren’t similar to those of other social media networks due to the fact that it just counts users who can see advertisements.
Revenue increased 18% year over year to $787 million. That topped the $775.69 million that experts surveyed by Thomson Reuters anticipated. Twitter reported adjusted revenues of 37 cents per share, above the 15 cents that experts anticipated.
Twitter beat expectations throughout the board, recommending that a few of the significant modifications it’s been making to the platform — dealing with hate speech, making discussions much easier to follow and presenting brand-new functions to enhance user experience — might be settling. For numerous Twitter users, the modifications are long past due.
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In previous quarters, Twitter saw a drop in monthly active users and partly attributed the decline to its efforts to crack down on spam and fake accounts. During the first quarter, Twitter estimated, fake or spam accounts represented fewer than 5% of its monthly and daily active users.
Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey said that the company’s top priority has been improving the “health” of the platform, a move that could attract more users and advertisers. Twitter, which has lagged behind other social networks like Facebook, is using technology to flag abusive tweets before a user reports it.
“What this means is that we’re taking a bunch of the burden away from the victims of abuse and harassment on our service,” Dorsey said during a call with analysts on Tuesday.
In early trading Tuesday, Twitter shares were up more than 13% to around $39.05.
Promoting ‘healthy’ conversations
If you find Twitter confusing to use, you aren’t alone.
Last month, the social network began letting some users test new features designed to make it easier to follow the sometimes helter-skelter conversations. The lack of organization was illustrated in February, when Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was interviewed by tweet. Walt Mossberg, a veteran tech journalist, called it “a living example of how Twitter is a chaotic hellpit.”
The features included adding color to replies and indenting replies to help users follow along.
Dorsey said that most of the people testing the new Twitter features prefer it over what’s currently on the site and app.
“It’s showing that we’re headed in the right direction,” Dorsey said Tuesday. “But we still have some work to do before we we feel confident that we should put it in production.”
Twitter’s efforts to improve usability came as the company continues to crack down on hate speech and harassment. Like other social networks, such as Facebook and YouTube, Twitter struggled to remove copies of the New Zealand mosque shooting videos.
The social network has been called a toxic place, especially for women. Last year, a study by Amnesty International and Element AI found that female journalists and politicians received “abusive” or “problematic” tweets every 30 seconds on average.
In April, Twitter said it was using technology to flag abusive tweets before a user reports them. About 38% of content that violates Twitter’s rules was flagged by the company, compared to none during the same period last year, according to the company. Twitter said it introduced a new reporting process, and since then, the company has removed 2.5 times more tweets that share private information.
There are more possible changes coming to Twitter. The company said it plans to add a notice if a tweet violates the company’s rules but stays up because it’s in the public interest, a change that could impact President Donald Trump. In June, Twitter plans to launch a feature that lets people hide individual replies to tweets.
Dorsey said the company is also working on ways to make it easier to follow interests and events. Currently, Twitter users have to do a “ton of work” to find accounts that are related to their interests.
“The goal there ultimately,” Dorsey said. “would be for more people to participate in conversations around that interest.”
Originally published April 23 at 4:23 a.m. PT
Update at 6:25 a.m. PT: Adds remarks from conference call.
Update at 7:09 a.m PT: Adds change to stock price in early trading.
