Twitter has reported its first quarterly net profit helped by a rise in video advertising sales.<\/p>\n
The news gave a massive boost to Twitter’s shares which closed 12% up on the day.<\/p>\n
That was despite the number of people using the social network coming in below expectations.<\/p>\n
Twitter’s previous failure to make a profit had confounded investors given its widespread use and popularity among celebrities and politicians.<\/p>\n
Net profit was $91.1m (\u00a365m) in the fourth quarter of 2017, compared with a loss of $167.1m for the same period a year ago.<\/p>\n
Twitter, which has posted consistent losses since it became a public company in 2013, said it expected to be profitable for the full year of 2018 as well.<\/p>\n
The company has found success with video and other changes, deepening the experiences on offer, James Erkine, director at marketing firm The Social Circle, told the BBC.<\/p>\n
“It’s now about taking that scalable model and using it to reach new user groups to increase their user base,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Hopefully now they’ve made a profit once, they should be able to do it next quarter and carry on doing it.”<\/p>\n
User growth<\/strong><\/p>\n In October last year, Twitter had suggested a profit was likely as it sought to cut costs, including by slashing stock-based compensation.<\/p>\n Revenue in the quarter rose 2% to $732m, as growth internationally offset a decline in the US.<\/p>\n User growth, however, remained fairly flat.<\/p>\n The firm reported 330 million active users a month, a rise of 4% on last year but no change on the previous quarter.<\/p>\n Monthly active users in the US were down to 68 million from 69 million in the third quarter.<\/p>\n Twitter said user numbers had been hurt by changes made by Apple to its Safari web browser.<\/p>\n A crackdown on fake accounts also contributed to the lacklustre growth, it said.<\/p>\n The firm has faced controversy over use of the platform during political events, including Brexit and the 2016 presidential election in America.<\/p>\n The firm’s shares were trading around $32 per share in mid-morning trade.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Twitter has reported its first quarterly net profit helped by a rise in video advertising sales. The news gave a massive boost to Twitter’s shares which closed 12% up on the day. That was despite the number of people using the social network coming in below expectations. Twitter’s previous failure to make a profit had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":399931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[106],"tags":[1030],"yoast_head":"\n