Twitter Delivers Another Profitable Quarter

Social media behemoth Twitter has posted its second profitable quarter since going public in 2013.

The company’s revenue for the first three months of 2018 was up 21 per cent year on year (YOY) to US$655 million.

Twitter said its strong revenue performance drove better than expected profitability, with its quarterly GAAP net income at US$61 million, representing a GAAP net margin of 9 per cent.

Total advertising revenue grew by 21 per cent to US$575 million, and owned-and-operated (O&O) ad revenue was up 28 per cent to US$533 million – a decline of 10 per cent from the previous quarter.

Twitter’s non-O&O ad revenue was $42 million for the first quarter, a decrease of 28 per cent (YOY) driven by a $23 million YOY decline from the deprecated TellApart product, which did not have any revenue in Q1.

Excluding TellApart, Twitter noted that non-O&O ad revenue would have increased 18 per cent.

Video now accounts for more than half of Twitter’s ad revenue, and was the company’s fastest-growing ad format in Q1.

By region, US ad revenue totalled $288 million and international ad revenue totalled $287 million – an increase of 52 per cent led by strength in the Asia-Pacific region.

Twitters adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation was $244 million or 37 per cent of total revenue in Q1, compared to $170 million or 31 per cent of total revenue for the same period last year.

The number of average monthly active users was 336 million for the quarter, an increase of 3 per cent YOY and an increase of six million compared to 330 million in the previous quarter.

Average daily active users grew 10 per cent YOY, marking another quarter of double-digit growth.

Commenting on the results, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said the company had started off the year strongly.

“We grew our audience and engagement, marking another quarter of double digit year-over-year DAU growth, and continued our work to make it easier to follow topics, interests, and events on Twitter,” he said.

“We also introduced a new framework to think more cohesively about the issues affecting our service, including information quality and safety.

“This holistic approach will help us more effectively address these challenges by viewing them through the broader lens of the health of the public conversation, and we’re encouraged by our initial progress in this area.”

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