It's been a bad week for Twitter. With users taking to the platform to decry the introduction of a new algorithmic timeline -- a feature that turned out to be opt-in, for now -- and share prices plunging, it's not looking good for the social network.
The algorithmic move was part of a wider shake-up of the network by new CEO Jack Dorsey. Since his reappointment as CEO in October last year, Dorsey has taken a number of bold actions, from the replacement of 'faves' with 'hearts' and the suggestion that 'longform tweets' will hit timelines later this year to laying off 8 percent of Twitter's workers -- announcements that have a decidedly mixed response.
But what are the most worrying numbers for Dorsey and Twitter? WIRED looked at the company's most recent quarterly financial report.
£62 MILLION
The
most striking problem for Twitter is its net loss -- £62 million in the last
three months of 2015. It's an improvement on last year's results, however, when
the company reported a loss of £86m in the same time period.
320 MILLION
320 MILLION
320m
monthly active users (MAUs) might seem impressive -- but it's exactly the same
number as the previous quarter. It's the first time Twitter's user base has
failed to grow.
2 MILLION
2 MILLION
320m
isn't the whole picture, though. Twitter also offers a service called 'SMS Fast
Followers', which allows international users in India, Brazil and elsewhere to
use an SMS version of Twitter. When you subtract this pool of people from
Twitter's MAUs, its active user base actually dropped from 307m MAUs to 305m.
3%
3%
Twitter
shares dropped by 10 percent immediately after the results were announced
before recovering to a loss of 3 percent. Over the last year, shares in Twitter
have dropped around 67 percent.
52%
52%
Twitter's
expenses also took a hit -- they increased by £408m, a 52 percent increase from
the previous year.
£415 MILLIONAnalysts predicted that Twitter's revenue for the first quarter of 2016 would be £434million -- but Twitter has projected revenue at £415, this is £19m lower than predicted.
£415 MILLIONAnalysts predicted that Twitter's revenue for the first quarter of 2016 would be £434million -- but Twitter has projected revenue at £415, this is £19m lower than predicted.
400 MILLION
While Twitter's user base has been stalling, other social networks have been experiencing significant growth. Instagram, for example, surpassed Twitter's user base in September last year and now has over 400m monthly active users. Snapchat has 100m daily users, and Facebook has over one billion monthly users -- five times that of Twitter.
