Amidst the effects of coronavirus, social network company Twitter withdrew its Q1 revenue outlook and estimated an operating loss as its ad sales suffer a massive downfall. However, this revenue report also displayed a massive surge in active users.
According to the firm’s estimates, its first-quarter revenue could see a slight decrease on a year-over-year basis. Earlier, Twitter had projected an increase of 8.6 percent with its revenue being somewhere between US$825 million and US$885 million.
Meanwhile, Twitter revealed that its overall mDAU (monetisable daily active users) scaled up by 23 percent, reaching 164 million quarter-to-date. These figures were driven by ongoing product improvements and COVID-19 conversations.
Reportedly, numerous advertisers have withdrawn their marketing budgets as they struggle to keep up with the financial uncertainty due to the spread of coronavirus. Whereas remaining advertisers are hesitant to advertise their product among the discussions related to COVID-19 as to the fear of linking their brands with this pandemic.
Speaking on the move, Ned Segal, Chief Financial Officer, Twitter, said that the impacts of the COVID-19 were first seen in Asia, and then gradually propelled up to a global pandemic level. These effects have taken a toll on the company’s overall advertising revenue more significantly over the past few weeks.
However, Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, slated that the company is observing a substantial rise in people active on its platform.
Apparently, the coronavirus epidemic has positioned social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook as a vital application for a massive chunk of population, as they depend on these platforms for latest news updates from official regulators while virtually keeping in touch with friends.
As the platform observes more and more users on its application, Twitter notified its users that it would not be able to attend each and every tweet that breaches the newly set safety rules.
Under this new guideline, users would be required to delete those tweets that can instigate communal unrest due to the spread of COVID-19 or damage someone’s health by encouraging harmful or ineffective treatments.
Source Credit: http://www.ejinsight.com/20200324-twitter-ad-sales-hit-by-pandemic-but-active-users-soar/