Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
FOR THOSE WHO follow Twitter regularly, last night’s earnings call was probably more of the same. While it made $479 million (€418 million) in revenue, its highest yet, user growth fell to an all-time low of 1.4%.
Yet with a flurry of new features arriving in recent weeks and new deals being struck, it looks like it will be a crunch year for Twitter as it makes the service more appealing to both current and new users. But what were the main issues facing it now it has the last report of 2014 out of the way?
Are people making too much of a deal about user growth?
Almost every time an earnings call happens, the question of user growth is the first thing that’s thrown about. When you’re compared to the likes of Facebook’s 1.3 billion users and the success of apps like Instagram and Snapchat, it’s hard to escape the focus.
For this quarter, Twitter’s monthly active users grew by four million to 288 million and by 47 million across the year. And it would have been up to 292 million was it not for an “unforeseen bug” with iOS 8, causing it to lose four million users because of integration issues.
The slow growth rate is a concern, and the fact that this is at a low certainly doesn’t help matters, yet this makes its revenue growth more impressive and shows its potential to investors. And until growth stops or slows down, that’s the main concern.
Twitter’s biggest problem isn’t accessibility, it’s perception
Social media, by its very nature, is all about sharing moments in your life and ideas, or mention what you’re doing as a way to show the world that yes, you do have an interesting and fulfilled life, thank you very much.
However, not everyone can be interesting or funny all of the time and so going on Twitter can feel like a trial of sorts. It’s a platform where you’re given the mic, even if you’ve nothing really to say. There are other reasons like the learning curve for new users and not to mention the trolling and harassments problems that are regularly brought up.
Twitter is taking measures to address the latter, like Instant Timeline, which generates a curated timeline for new users so they can jump in without any hassle, and its CEO has said it will tackle the abuse and trolls problem, but again, the purpose of social media is interaction, and when it’s not entirely clear who you’re talking to (and what the response can be), that’s a problem.
Twitter’s increased dependence on third-party services is a double-edged sword.
With revenue and user growth dominating headlines, something that may have been lost in the noise was Twitter’s focus on third-parties. For one it launched Fabric, its mobile software development platform, in December and has struck deals with third-party services, mainly its deal with Google – as a way of getting more traffic – and its advertising appearing on news reader Flipboard and Yahoo Japan.
The more Twitter relies on third-parties, the more its fate is determined by external factors – the iOS 8 bug mentioned earlier being one example of where things can go wrong.
Yet while it’s a new way of getting tweets out there, it could just convince non-users that there’s no need to join if they can get relevant tweets elsewhere. That’s the worst case scenario and it will be many months before we see how exactly its partnership with Google and third-party apps unfolds.
How does Twitter video fit into the grand scheme of things?
During the earnings call Q&A, Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo was asked what the relationship between Vine and the new video upload service will be. The response was somewhat interesting, Vine would be for creatives while video upload will be for those who want to record and upload without fuss.
Yet is that really enough to get people to use it. At least with Facebook Video, it has an algorithm to push such entries up and expose people to the idea, but there’s no clear direction or impetus for the average user to upload a video.
Vine has the six second limit which forces those to be snappy and creative – which can lead to some great punchlines – but for 30-second video, will people use it to upload regular moments like Facebook or Instagram, or will it be used for specific moments like news events and such? Probably the latter.
http://vine.co/v/b0BzIJMqxde
Is 2015 the year Twitter gets out of the red?
Nine years is a long time to wait for any business to make a profit, but the growth in revenue from the last quarter is cause for optimism and bringing ads to third-party sites could help accelerate this further.
The company made $1.4 billion (€1.22 billion) in 2014 and while spending is rising as well, there’s nothing to say that by this time next year, Twitter will be out of the red. At the very least, things are looking up.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Nationwide network of these cycle paths now taking shape nicely.
With a bit of marketing and advertising abroad, in no time the place will be swarming with Northern Europeans who love a bit of a peddle.
Should be good news for pubs, shops, restaurants and B & Bs along the way.
Well done Leo Varadkar!
Yeah, this looks brilliant!
Our entire west coast should be a maze of walking and cycling tracks! It’s a prospect that would genuinely make a huge difference to their economies! Best if the development of bars, restaurants and guest houses are kept small scale, get the real economy ticking over!
Bring it on. Can’t wait to test cycle this once it’s ready.
This country gets better and better. More in there line to cut the briars before they cut the eyes out of my head!!
A cycle route from Donegal to Cork hugging the coast as best as possible would bring a massive boom.
You need relatively flat terrain for a Greenway, unless you’re a seriously fit cyclist. Coastal roads are full of steep inclines and declines.
No you don’t! Nobody is suggesting your average cyclist is going to travel the full coast but it would certainly be a huge asset to local tourism!
Agree with Ted – and besides you keep it on a nice gradient easily. Also people want to see nice scenery – not flat bogland for miles to see.
it’ll give a wheel cyclelogical boost to those who need it most
The nimbies will want it to be put underground
Actually, this seems like one thing that people mightn’t object to living beside.
Irish cycle way … Can they at least put a roof on it?
Don’t encourage any more clutcheez in Dublin. We have too many already!
I will definitely be giving it a go. Will be hoping not to be mugged before I reach section 3 though.
Finish the bloody motorway network before you go wasting money on people’s hobbies!!
Good for tourism and great for cyclists stop moaning
Scrap the motorway programme. Oversized waste of scarce money
More in their line to bypass adare or an outer ring of dublin to avoid the M50 or widen the M7 down as far as the M9 merge!
I don’t think it should be scrapped, but it was very poorly designed, such that we now need far more kilometres of motorway than necessary. Having three motorways heading south, practically parallel for much of the way is lunacy.
More roads mean more cars mea more traffic america has prove this time and again
Yeah scrap the motorways.Be fun wont it when your tofu and other green fodder arrives by bicycle or ass and cart…Or do you all expect us all to live in Mega city Dublin??
Motorways in Ireland is like a baby getting its first solid food.
Chatting to a tourist today and the countryside is what grabbed him, cycling is a great way to see the country and the tourist spend is a very democratic spend in local, shops, pubs and B&Bs which are best placed to benefit. Between cycling and hiking there is a big untapped market.
This is one thing the authorities are getting right. The infrastructure is not costing a huge amount. Thanks to the Brits we have a maze of old train lines and canals throughout the country that can be used to create walk and cycle ways. With a push for everyone to get active it has many benefits. With a huge demographic retiring or retired looking for an active and healthy hobby a lot of tourists can be attracted. No reason why we shouldn’t match NZ as an outdoor activity country – walking, hiking, cycling, sea kayaking, etc. The Spanish have done extremely well out of the camino in Spain and others are following suit.
Hope its not the way the motorways were built with land speculation and the like, a meandering path depending on who owns the land and how much councillors received as backhanders.
What we now need is for Irish rail to improve the service for cyclists. There is now way for small groups to use the trains to transport bikes (unless I’m mistaken?)
Along the Esker Riada – best way of all.
I live by the completed ashtown section. It’s a great job. If it cost 1.7m however the next section to the Kildare border will be massive money, terrain is far worse with the train immediately to one side and the canal dug down into the rock to the other. Still fair play on what’s done so far.
I’m aiming or cycle the old n4-6 this September cycle way would great
have your say