Silicon Valley is experiencing a rapid transformation currently. We recently reported that the focus in the valley has switched to AI and robotics, and now the area is seeing some of it’s largest companies fall on hard times. With Verizon buying out Yahoo, Apple experiencing revenue loss for two-quarters and now even Twitter is showing sounds of an uncertain financial future.
The social media giant has been experiencing a decay in add growth and audience growth is beginning to stagnate. Meanwhile, Facebook is back on the rise, LinkedIn received a massive buyout from Microsoft, and Snapchat has millennials in the palm of their hands.
Twitter reported a revenue of $602-million USD this past quarter, which is up 20-percent from this time last year. However, the social media site has experienced a net loss of $107-million USD for the quarter and a user growth of only 3-percent since last year.
The company’s troubles can be largely blamed on the fact that they’re struggling to real in more monthly users. If the site can not secure a larger audience at a steady pace then advertisers will not feel the need to use the social media site as a medium. Due to add revenue being the main source of income for Twitter, this could spell trouble for the website’s financial stability.
Twitter is currently used largely for sending out quick blasts of information. Businesses, celebrities, and bloggers can send a quick blurb of information which either makes a quick announcement or incorporates a catchy title that then links the viewer to wherever the Tweet wants them to go. While this may seem great, sites like Instagram and Facebook allow the same demographic as mentioned before to make more of connection to viewers.
In an effort to boost the site’s traffic, Twitter announced that will be allowing the general public to apply for account verification. Twitter likely implemented this to encourage more companies and well-known individuals to use the website, which will, in turn, draw their fans and followers to use the site as well. Since this opportunity is so new the effects on the sites traffic are not yet known. More about the new Twitter Verification process can be read here in an article.
Moving forward the 10-year old company will have to figure out a way to attract more concurrent users. If Twitter fails to do so, it could result in them losing out on advertisement deals, valuable talent, and other opportunities.
