Twitter’s Daily User Base Grows 13% To 217M

Twitter posted solid fourth-quarter numbers, meeting Wall Street revenue expectations, as its daily active user base grew 13% to reach 217 million.

Shares in the company gained in pre-market trading to more than $40, reversing a months-long slide, but a 7% upswing decreased to a more modest 2% lift close to the opening bell. Last week, social media peer Snap Inc. experienced a massive single-day stock spike after it reported quarterly numbers, while Meta took a tumble after it reported the first user decline for Facebook in 18 years.

Quarterly revenue for Twitter came in at $1.57 billion, up 22% from the year-ago quarter, with ad revenue also rising 22% to $1.41 billion. Earnings of 21 cents a diluted share declined from 27 cents in the comparable quarter of 2020.

The company said it expects a revenue increase this year in the low- to mid-20% range from 2021 levels. It cited “meaningful progress” toward its goal of 315 million users and $7.5 billion in annual revenue by the end of 2023.

In its quarterly letter to shareholders, Twitter said it has stabilized its product experience and advertising functionality, despite changes enacted by Apple. In its quarterly report last week, Meta said Apple’s changes had produced a multi-billion-dollar problem it had to solve.

“Although retooling our revenue products in light of Apple’s privacy-related iOS changes took additional time, energy, and resources in 2020 and 2021, we believe that our product improvements have helped reduce the impact on Twitter,” the letter said. “As we look ahead, there is more work to do, but we remain confident that we have a roadmap in place that can allow us to continue improving our product performance and navigate future potential changes while growing our ads business and achieving our goals.”