World News – CA – Twitter added just one million users, below estimate – BNN Bloomberg

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Twitter Inc said it added just one million new daily users in the third quarter, far fewer than analysts estimated, dashing optimism that the social network would benefit from a return of sports live and the upcoming US election Share fell about 15 percent in extended trade

The company reported 187 million daily users at the end of the quarter, an increase of 29% from last year, but a paltry gain from the previous period By comparison, Twitter added 20 million new users in the second quarter

Advertisers, however, returned to the San Francisco-based company in the third quarter, generating much higher sales than analysts believes, a sign that the digital advertising business is back after the outbreak of the global pandemic

Twitter is one of three internet companies under intense pressure from US officials over their handling of political content Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testified alongside executives of Facebook Inc and Google during a panel of the Senate Wednesday In Thursday’s results, the company did not give a forecast for the holiday quarter, but suggested that the uncertainty around the election could have an impact on the business

– It’s hard to predict how advertiser behavior might change, – the company wrote in its letter to shareholders In the second quarter, many brands slowed or halted spending in response to US civil unrest, to increase expenses relatively quickly thereafter in an effort to catch upâ € ”

There were concerns that Twitter activity could be affected by a broad advertising boycott in July, when a number of top brand marketers pulled spending from social media companies due to their frustration facing their content policies

Unlike Facebook, Twitter has long relied on live events and big brand advertisers for business, but said in April that it also needs to improve its direct response advertising product, which is typically more useful for business users. Ecommerce Advertisers Looking To Drive Immediate Sales At the time, Twitter executives rated better execution of this type of ad a top priorityat ????

But in the letter to shareholders, Twitter said that a new version of these types of announcements are now being delayed until 2021 so the company can accommodate new industry standard mobile privacy requirements. Ned Segal, chief financial officer, confirmed that the delay was in part due to expected updates related to Apple Inc iOS 14 software update Certain changes to Apple’s software will affect how online advertisers can track people on the web, but these changes were postponed until early next year Twitter is waiting to see how they are implemented, Segal said

Sales rose 14% to US $ 936 million during the period ended Sept. 30, Twitter said on Thursday It was the biggest jump since the second quarter of 2019 Analysts were forecasting a decline of 5% to $ 7805 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg In the letter to shareholders, Twitter cited the return of live events, such as professional sports, and product improvements as key drivers of revenue

Twitter said in July it was exploring other lines of business, including subscriptions and « management of payment walls » but these efforts were not highlighted in the letter to shareholders

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