Twitter earnings report beats expectations

Twitter stock jumped after the social media company reported a positive earnings report for the third quarter (Q3). The news helped the corporation’s stock soar 17%.

Twitter’s rise in revenue

Twitter’s revenue was $758 million, more than the expected $702 million. Revenue has increased for the social media company 29% every year since the corporation’s initial public offering (IPO) went public in 2013.

‘We're achieving meaningful progress in our efforts to make Twitter a healthier and valuable everyday service,’ said Jack Dorsey, Twitter's chief executive officer (CEO). ‘We're doing a better job detecting and removing spammy and suspicious accounts at sign-up.’

Ending fake news and privacy issues on Twitter

Twitter has overcome controversy about thousands of fake accounts from Russia and Iran spreading misinformation to influence the US presidential election of 2016. The corporation recently acted to ban fraudulent visitors. The company noted that it has added algorithms to track false Twitter profiles and has banned nine million automated users. After deleting bogus tweets, the number of monthly daily visitors to Twitter dropped from 335 million to 326 million users.

Twitter is also under investigation in Ireland for violating the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the privacy initiative that was implemented in May. GDPR gives consumers more control over how businesses share their data online. A Twitter user, Michael Veale, asked how the social media company tracks him on the app. The corporation refused to give Veale the information it collects on him because Twitter claimed finding the data would take too much time. Now the Irish Data Protection Commission (IDPC) is putting the organisation under scrutiny for its failure to comply with GDPR.

Twitter looks to the future

While Twitter’s monthly users have decreased as a result of GDPR and eliminating fake accounts, daily account holders have increased by 9%. Dorsey also spoke about Twitter’s plans to help them and expand its services.

‘We're also continuing to introduce improvements that make it easier for people to follow events, topics and interests on Twitter, like adding support for US TV shows in our new event infrastructure,’ said Dorsey. ‘This quarter's strong results prove we can prioritise the long-term health of Twitter while growing the number of people who participate in public conversation.’

Twitter also plans to increase its employee ranks by 15% by the end of 2018.