Five years after going public, Twitter finally logs profit

Twitter today reported its first-ever quarterly profit, in a key milestone for the social network which has been lagging for years against fast-growing rivals.

San Francisco-based Twitter said it earned US$ 91 million in the fourth quarter, the first positive net income since going public in 2013. Revenue was up two percent from a year ago to a better- than-expected US$ 732 million.
The number of monthly active users was 330 million, unchanged from the prior quarter but up four per cent from a year earlier. While Twitter has built a solid core base of celebrities, politicians and journalists, it has failed to achieve the broader appeal of Facebook and other social platforms, hurting its ability to bring in ad revenues.

The profitability is an important achievement for Twitter, which has lost money consistently since its public offering, sparking speculation on whether it needed to sell itself to keep operating. Chief executive Jack Dorsey welcomed “a strong finish to the year,” and added “I’m proud of the steady progress we made in 2017, and confident in our path ahead.”

The network has stepped up efforts to boost its user base and engagement, adding streaming video partnerships, doubling the character limit on tweets to 280 …read more