Twitter Shares Climb 17% as Users Increase

• Twitter Shares Climb 17% as Users Increase

Social networking service, Twitter Inc, revenue rose by 18 per cent to $787 million in the first quarter of 2019. The highest since 2017.

Ad sales grew by 18 per cent to US$679 million. In the United States, ad revenue rose by 26 per cent, largely due to video ads.

The total number of active users climbed 11 per cent to 134 million. While monthly active users jump 9 million to 330 million in the first quarter, higher than the 2.2 million declines projected by experts.

“Twitter is on a path to sustainable revenue growth and accelerated profit expansion, driven by improvements to the user experience and tools enabling direct response and search advertising,” said analyst Michael Pachter at Wedbush Securities.

The better than expected results prompted another criticism from US President Donald Trump, who accused the social networking service of political discrimination.

“The best thing ever to happen to Twitter is Donald Trump. @MariaBartiromo So true, but they don’t treat me well as a Republican. Very discriminatory, hard for people to sign on. Constantly taking people off list. Big complaints from many people,” President Trump said in a tweet.

President Trump is the most active global leader on Twitter and uses the microblogging site to disseminate key information.

This, according to experts, boosted Twitter reach as journalists, businesses, lawmakers and Trump’s  60 million followers now depend on the microblogging site to stay in touch with the president comments on top issues.

Twitter shares rose by US$5.40 or 17 per cent to US$40.48 on Tuesday following the report.