Wall Street late yesterday deepened its long-running skepticism of Twitter, sending shares down by nearly 11% in after-hours trading after the S.F.-based company posted another round of disappointing earnings for Q2. Twitter said it has grown to 313 million monthly active users, up 3% year-over-year and up from 310 million in Q1, with improved levels of user engagement. But the $602M in Q2 revenue was below analyst projections and marked the eighth straight period of slowing growth, and Twitter lowered forecasts for Q3 due to diminished expectations for ad revenue. Twitter stock has fallen by double-digit percentages following each of its past four quarterly earnings reports.
A focus on live streaming video of name-brand content, highlighted by a recent run of sports deals, now represents a foundational pillar for the company. But co-Founder & CEO Jack Dorsey in yesterday's earnings call acknowledged that process remains a work in progress. “We’re partnering with providers of the world’s most popular content,” he said. “All this work is planting seeds for meaningful contributions to our continued growth.”
