It seems to be surprising, but Twitter didn't add any new monthly active users in the past three months. The microblogging network has reported 328 million monthly active users in its second-quarter earnings -- the same that was originally emerged in April.
Analysts expected Twitter to add at least a few million users. However, the realistic performance wasn't on a par with the expectations. The number of international monthly active users grew 260 million in the last quarter, compared to 259 million in the previous quarter, but the user base in the US declined 2 million to 68 million.
In the last three months, Twitter launched some of the noticeable features to mark growth going forward. It brought a 'lite' version of its app and even redesigned the experience to attract new users. But the tweaks ostensibly didn't help to pull users from the US or result in an exponential growth from international markets.
Video content as a saviour
It appears that the 140-character model which Twitter used to launch its service back in 2006 is no longer influential for netizens in 2017. But video content helped the platform magnetise users.
The microblogging network delivered more than 1,200 hours of live video from existing and new content partners in the second quarter. This marks an increase from 900 hours in the previous quarter. Likewise, viewership for the premium videos has also been increased 22 percent to 55 million unique viewers.
To bolster the growth in terms of video streams, Twitter recently uplifted its Explore tab with more live video delivery. The San Francisco, Calif.-based company even partnered with digital media company Roku to serve video content right on HDTVs in the US.
Furthermore, Periscope, the app that Twitter acquired in 2015 to counter live video streaming app Meerkat and services such as Facebook Live and Snapchat, streamed 76 million hours of live user-generated video content in the second quarter. The company even enabled select US broadcasters to start monetising their videos.
"Our ability to attract audiences and advertising dollars reflects the breadth of our live streaming content across sports, news and politics and entertainment," the company said in a letter to its shareholders.
Founder and CEO Jack Dorsey highlighted the expansion through live content, albeit without defining the flat user growth. "We are encouraged by the progress we're making executing against our top revenue generating priorities as we focus on making the best place to see and share what's happening," the 40-year-old executive said in a press statement.
Nowhere close to Facebook
While live content delivery seems to bring success to Twitter, it is nowhere near Facebook that reported record two billion monthly active users in the second quarter. Interestingly, the Mark Zuckerberg-led company added nearly as many users in the last one year as Twitter has in total.
"We're strengthening our execution, which gives us confidence that our product improvements will continue to contribute to meaningful increases in daily active usage," Dorsey concluded.
Twitter posted quarterly revenue of US$574 million in its latest earnings report, a decrease of 5 percent year-over-year. The overall sales resulted in a net loss of US$116 million.
