Results show Twitter may be losing steam
TWITTER last night released a disappointing set of results with indicators of user engagement falling and the growth in active users showing signs of slowing.
Timeline views per user, which measures engagement, slid seven per cent globally to 636 in the third quarter. Meanwhile, total timeline views of 181bn was below analysts’ expectations.
The firm reported 284m monthly active users – a 23 per cent increase from the same period in 2013 but only a five per cent increase from the second quarter of 2014. The quarterly increase in active users marks a slowdown and has raised issues of growth sustainability.
Third quarter revenue was $361m (£224m), beating Wall Street estimates of $351m. However, the firm has forecast its fourth quarter revenue to be in the range of $440m to $450m which may miss investors’ targets of $449m.
Twitter shares dropped by as much as eight per cent during after hours trading.
“Investors sceptical of the sustainability of the pace of user growth are likely to focus on third quarter user metrics,” said Arvind Bhatia, an analyst at Sterne Agee.