Twitter Reports 'Earnings Surprise' in Q4 Last Year... Stock Price Soars Over 17% Intraday

by Kwon Jaehee

Published 07 Feb.2020 10:12(KST)

Q4 Revenue Reaches 1.2 Trillion KRW … Up 11% YoY

Performance Driven by Increased Users

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jaehee] The American information technology (IT) company Twitter, which provides social networking services (SNS), recorded its highest-ever revenue in the fourth quarter of last year, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 6th (local time).

According to the report, Twitter achieved revenue of $1.0734 billion (approximately 1.2 trillion KRW) in the fourth quarter of last year (October to December). This represents an approximately 11% increase compared to the same period last year and exceeds Wall Street’s average forecast of $996.7 million.

Twitter attributed the performance to a 21% increase in monetizable daily active users (mDAU) from the previous quarter, reaching 152 million.

Monetizable daily active users differ from the monthly active users commonly used in the SNS industry and are one of the key management indicators that Twitter values.

The company defined "daily active users" as "users who log in to Twitter every day through the Twitter website or app where ads can be shown."

However, net profit fell short of expectations, recording $118.77 million (approximately 141 billion KRW), down 52% during the same period. This decline is attributed to a 40% increase in research and development expenses. Twitter has announced plans to build new data centers and increase its workforce by about 20% this year. At the end of last year, Twitter had 4,800 employees, meaning it plans to hire approximately 960 new staff members.

Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), said, "We will ensure that employees are distributed worldwide, and through this, we will further develop our business."