Twitter User Base Grows While Profits Drop

In its recent report on its financial results, Twitter revealed that it made an £86 million loss but had in fact gained users, The Drum reports. The results covered the period of March until June 2014.

The monthly user base jumped by 16 million users, to 271 million. This has been put down to the FIFA World Cup giving the social network a boost, measuring an increase of 24% compared to a year ago. However, the platform suffered financial losses of more than three-times the amount recorded in the same period for 2013.

According to Anthony Mullen, an analyst for Forrester, Twitter needs to address its product offering and diversify in order to attract a more varied selection of users and make marketers happy. At the time the results were published, Twitter’s shares rose by 35%. Advertising revenue also increased by a staggering $277 million – this was mainly down to people who use the site from their mobile, which accounts for 78% of total platform activity.

Mullen noted that one of the reasons behind Twitter’s unfortunate loss in revenues can be attributed to the lack of diversity in what it offers; Facebook, however, allows users to do a number of things, therefore meaning “there are more experiences that can be created.”

Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter, said that the “strong financial and operating results” were indicative of Twitter’s strong position within the market.

Forrester found that less than half of marketers who use the site are happy with the platform (44%), while 50% weren’t confident that they can effectively measure their marketing efforts on the platform.