Twitter just admitted a mistake with its user count, an area of the business that constantly frustrates the company's worst enemy -- Wall Street.
Turns out Twitter had been overstating its number of users for the past three years by erroneously counting users of third-party apps into its total monthly actives. Twitter adjusted its numbers for the past three quarters as part of its third-quarter earnings report Thursday.
Part of that admission means Twitter's user base shrank last quarter for the first time since 2015. The company had previously reported its user growth was flat at 328 million monthly active users but it was actually 326 million. So despite President Donald Trump's active use of the platform, it seems that more people aren't rushing to sign up for Twitter.
But not all is bad in Twitter's world. CEO Jack Dorsey's goal for 2017 was make Twitter profitable, and the company is inching toward that financial success. It expects to reach profitability next quarter, which would be a first for the business.
"This quarter we made progress in three key areas of our business: we grew our audience and engagement, made progress on a return to revenue growth, and achieved record profitability," Dorsey said in a statement. "We're proud that the improvements we're making to the product continue to bring people back to Twitter on a daily basis."
Twitter's daily active user count is growing. The company declined to share an overall number but said the average grew 14 percent from the year prior, up from 12 percent last quarter.
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This daily user growth comes after years of downfall in the stock market and in turn deciding to cut costs and further focus the business. At its quarterly earnings a year ago, Twitter announced layoffs for 9 percent of its workforce, or about 350 employees. It also shut down six-second video app Vine.
Twitter has made some big changes over the last few months:
Twitter finally put curbing abuse and harassment as a number one priority and instituted its strictest guidelines to date following the #WomenBoycottTwitter movement earlier this month.
Twitter upped the character count from its traditional 140 to 280 characters for some users.
Twitter reworked its advertising policy amid increasing pressure from lawmakers after evidence came out that Russian-linked accounts bought ads during the 2016 election.
To make Twitter better, some analysts and investors have been calling for Dorsey to step down from his secondary CEO job at Square. While the payments company has been reaching new heights, Twitter's financial growth has remained dismal. This week, Square inched closer to Twitter's market capitalization, or total value on the stock market.
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Topics Social Media Twitter
