Twitter reports weak earnings after quarterly report leaks ahead of schedule
Twitter’s revenue increased 74 per cent to $436m in Q1, falling short of analyst expectations of $457m.
The company’s quarterly earnings report leaked early, with financial intelligence firm Selerity posting earnings, revenue, and user figures shortly after 3pm ET on 28 April.
Shortly afterwards Twitter released a press release confirming the numbers.
Revenue outlook for Q2 is projected to be in the range of $470m to $485m, also well below analyst projections of $538m.
Dick Costolo, chief executive of Twitter, said in a statement: “Revenue growth fell slightly short of our expectations due to lower-than-expected contribution from some of our newer direct response products.”
The platform reported 302 million monthly users, up 18 per cent year on year.
Advertising revenue came in at $388m, a 72 per cent increase compared to the previous year. Meanwhile mobile advertising revenue accounted for 89 per cent of the total.
To coincide with the results it also announced a partnership with Google to make Twitter content easier to find through search.
According to eMarketer, Twitter accounted for 0.87 per cent of the $145bn digital advertising space worldwide in 2014, up from 0.49 per cent in 2013.
The majority (85 per cent) of Twitter's ad revenues came from mobile devices in 2014, when the company's share of the $42.63bn worldwide mobile ad market reached 2.48 per cent, according to eMarketer, up from 2.23 per cent share in 2013.