July 23, 2021
Twitter posted higher-than-expected revenue growth on Thursday as the social media platform introduced improvements in ad targeting to help brands reach potential customers.
Twitter shares rose 5% to $73 in after-market trading, with advertising revenue of $1.05 billion, up 87% from the same quarter last year, beating Wall Street estimates of $909.9 million.
Since early 2021, Twitter has begun rolling out products in new areas such as audio-only chatrooms and newsletter publishing to reverse years of flat growth and meet its goal of 100% annual revenue growth by 2023.
These improvements, together with increased demand from advertisers seeking to reach consumers when countries reopen after pandemic restrictions, helped boost advertising revenue.
Twitter had 206 million daily active users in the second quarter, which ended June 30, according to Refinitiv’s IBES data.
According to Twitter, the social media giant’s U.S. user base fell by one million in three months from the previous quarter due to a lighter news cycle in the United States, with the total number of users worldwide matching Wall Street’s targets.
Total revenue, which includes revenue from data licenses, rose 74% year-on-year to $1.19 billion, beating analyst forecasts of $1.07 billion.
The company now expects full-year headcount, total costs and expenses to increase by at least 30%, up from a previous estimate of 25%, as it invests in its engineering and product teams.
Twitter expects total revenue for the third quarter to be between $1.22 billion and $1.3 billion, roughly in line with analysts’ estimates of $1.17 billion or slightly above.
On an adjusted basis, Twitter earned 20 cents per share in the second quarter, well above its estimate of 7 cents.
For more information read the original story from Reuters.
