Twitter reports first quarterly profit but still struggling to attract new users
Twitter has reported its first quarterly profit in its latest financial results but continues to struggle to entice new long-term users.
The social media site reported net income of 91 million US dollars (£65 million), compared with a loss of more than 167 million US dollars (£119 million) in the same period last year.
The company also announced record quarterly revenue and an increase in daily users - but total monthly active users failed to grow, staying at around 330 million.
Total revenue for the quarter was 732 million US dollars (£523 million), a 2% increase on the same period last year.
Q4 was a strong finish to the year with total revenue increasing 2% y/y, and O&O advertising revenue increasing 7% y/y, reflecting better-than-expected growth across all major products and geographies. #TWTR
-- Twitter Investor Relations (@TwitterIR) February 8, 2018
Twitter co-founder and chief executive Jack Dorsey said: "Q4 was a strong finish to the year.
"We returned to revenue growth, achieved our goal of GAAP profitability, increased our shipping cadence, and reached five consecutive quarters of double-digit DAU (daily active user) growth.
"I'm proud of the steady progress we made in 2017, and confident in our path ahead."
The number of people using Twitter every day rose by 12%, the company said - the fifth consecutive quarter of such growth.
However questions remain over its ability to entice new long-term users to the platform.
Despite a 4% increase in monthly active users over the last year, the company saw no increase in the last three months, with the numbers described as "flat".
We are committed to making Twitter safer, and we are clarifying our policies, improving our enforcement, and communicating more clearly. #TWTR
-- Twitter Investor Relations (@TwitterIR) February 8, 2018
The platform has struggled to effectively communicate how best to use the site, but has made notable changes in the last year to try to become more accessible.
These include doubling the the tweet character limit to 280 and the addition of a new thread feature to enable users to better string a series of tweets together.
However, the site continues to face criticism over safety and its enforcement of polices to remove fake news and extreme and explicit content from the site.
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