The site increased its user base by 30 per cent from last year but investors still pushed its stock lower
Twitter has reported its first earnings as a public company, revealing that sales more than doubled from a year ago, though it still hasn't managed to turn a profit.
Revenue for the quarter ended December 31 was $US243 million, up 116 per cent from the same quarter a year earlier, Twitter said in its earnings release. That was far higher than the $US218 million analysts had been expecting, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.
Its loss was a hefty $US511 million, much greater than its loss of $US8.71 million in the fourth quarter of 2012. Excluding share-based compensation and other adjustments, it would have made a profit of $0.02 per share, again better than analysts had expected.
"Twitter finished a great year with our strongest financial quarter to date," CEO Dick Costolo said in a statement.
Still, investors reacted by pushing its shares down nearly 10 per cent in trading after hours, to $US59.60 at the time of this report.
The company ended the year with 241 million monthly active users, up 30 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2012. Despite the increase, it lags far behind Facebook, which has passed 1.2 billion monthly active users.
Twitter's advertising revenue totaled $US220 million for the quarter, up 121 per cent from a year earlier. More than 75 per cent of its ad sales were from ads placed on mobile devices, showing Twitter's ability to monetize its site on a critical platform.
It was Twitter's first earnings report since the company went public late last year at $US45 a share. Its IPO documents showed at the time that the company was growing fast but losing money.
Since the IPO, which was viewed as a success, the company has faced questions about its ability to maintain its growth rate and become a more "mainstream" service like Facebook.
One of Twitter's largest advertising products is its promoted tweets, which allow marketers to place sponsored tweets in users' streams. Twitter only charges marketers when people click on the tweet or follow the promoted account, however.
For the full year, Twitter's sales grew by 110 per cent, to $US665 million. Its net loss for the year was $US645 million.
Zach Miners covers social networking, search and general technology news for IDG News Service. Follow Zach on Twitter at @zachminers. Zach's e-mail address is zach_miners@idg.com
In the third and final episode of our 3-part CMO50 video series exploring modern marketing and why it’s become a matter of trust, we’re delighted to be joined by Telstra’s former CMO and now digital services and sales executive, Jeremy Nicholas, and Adobe VP Marketing Asia-Pacific and Japan, Duncan Egan.
Flash back to the classic film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Television-obsessed Mike insists on becoming the first person to be ‘sent by Wonkavision’, dematerialising on one end, pixel by pixel, and materialising in another space. His cinematic dreams are realised thanks to rash decisions as he is shrunken down to fit the digital universe, followed by a trip to the taffy puller to return to normal size.
Why is it there is no shortage of leadership development materials, yet outstanding leadership is so rare? Despite having access to so many leadership principles, tools, systems and processes, why is it so hard to develop and improve as a leader?
As a nation united by sport, brands are beginning to learn money alone won’t talk without aligned values and action. If recent events with major leagues and their players have shown us anything, it’s the next generation of athletes are standing by what they believe in – and they won’t let their values be superseded by money.
