Twitter shares surge as results surprise, while CEO vows it will become easier to use
Twitter shares have jumped 15 per cent after the social media platform smashed revenue expectations and pledged to make it more appealing for users to log on frequently.
The Nasdaq-listed company had forecast revenue up to $US775 million ($1.09 billion) for the first quarter of 2019 and came in at $US787 million.
It also reported 134 million 'monetised' active daily users, or users the number of users that log on during a day and would be exposed to paid Twitter advertising content, representing an 11 per cent increase.
Twitter shares closed at $US39.77 on Tuesday, up 15.64 per cent.
Bloomberg analysts were expecting earnings per share to come in at less than 20c, but the company revealed this figure would be 25c.
In a conference call with analysts on Tuesday morning, Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey said the company was focused on making it more attractive for users to log on frequently.
"The more relevant we make Twitter for people, the faster they see something that interests them, the better the experience," he said.
A key part of this project is using machine learning to detect harrassment and abuse online faster.
Close to 40 per cent of all tweets taken down for abuse or content breach reasons are detected by machine learning tools, Mr Dorsey said. One year ago these tools were not identifying any take down tweets at all.
Management also explained its aims for its prototype app Twttr. The public app is testing new formats and layouts, with the platform acknowledging it can be difficult to actually see a thread of comments on the platform.
"The first push has been to organise the conversation in a much better way to enable people to see the entire conversation within a Tweet on one surface instead of tapping through multiple Tweets," Mr Dorsey told analysts.
Advertising revenue sat at $US679 million ($956 million) for the quarter, up 18 per cent year-over-year.
While "monetised" active users grew more strongly than expected, monthly active users have dropped.
The number of users that logged on monthly was down 2 per cent year-on-year, to 330 million users. More than 260 million of these Twitter users were located outside the United States.