Twitter Reports Drop in Active Users; Share Price Sinks
Company says user numbers could continue to fall as it cracks down on hate speech
Twitter's share price fell more than 20 percent Friday after the social media giant reported a drop in active users. Twitter said it had 335 million monthly users in the second quarter of the year, which was down a million from the amount of monthly users in the first quarter of the year, and below the 339 million users Wall Street was expecting. Twitter said that the number of monthly users could continue to fall next quarter as the company continues to ban accounts that violate its terms of service and as it makes other accounts less visible. The company says it is putting the long-term stability of its platform above user growth. However, the move has made it more difficult for investors to value the company, as they rely on data pertaining to the platform's potential user reach. Shares in Twitter tumbled 20.5 percent to close at $34.12 Friday. The fall in the share price came despite Twitter's report of higher than expected revenue. During the last quarter, Twitter posted a profit of $100 million, marking the company's third consecutive profitable quarter. The drop in Twitter's share price came a day after Facebook lost 19 percent of its value. Facebook said Thursday that slower user growth in big markets and increased spending to improve privacy would hit margins for years, leading to the company's worst trading day since it went public in 2012. Both Twitter and Facebook have been under pressure from regulators in several countries to protect user data as well as stamp out hate speech and misinformation.