Twitter's Q4 ad revenues rose while its user base fell

Twitter's Q4 earnings show that while the company's advertising efforts are paying off, it is failing to grow its user base. Much of Twitter's $710m in revenue came from advertising ($641m) which saw an annual increase of 48%, ad engagement was also up 153%. However, excluding SMS Fast Followers, monthly active users (MAUs) fell from 307 million in Q3 to 305 million in Q4, and accounted for only a 6% increase YoY. Twitter also announced that it now has over 130,000 active advertisers, a 90% YoY increase.  

Twitter’s advertising efforts worked well in Q4 2015, but the company is having trouble retaining users — much less enticing new ones.

Twitter announced its Q4 2015 results Wednesday, showing that not counting SMS Fast Followers, monthly active users (MAUs) declined from 307 million in Q3 to 305 million in Q4. Year-over-year, this is only a 6 percent increase.

However, Twitter’s shareholders letter is quick to point out that they’ve seen January monthly active user levels rise back to Q3 levels. Impressively,