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Twitter’s subpar earnings raise questions about acquisition, Dorsey’s future

Saqib Shah
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Jack Dorsey/JD Lasica/Flickr
Has Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey shipwrecked the beloved platform he helped create? Following another quarter of disappointing results, which saw the company miss revenue expectations, all eyes are now trained on the Twitter chief. Will he abandon ship? Or, as so many analysts have suggested, shop around for an acquisition or merger?

Nestled within Twitter’s letter to shareholders there were some glimmers of hope. The company’s revenue grew 20 percent year-over-year to reach $602 million, although it still came in below Wall Street’s expectations of $607 million.

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As was the case in the previous quarter, Twitter’s advertising is partly to blame. Despite seeing ad revenue hit $535 million, an 18 percent increase year-over-year, Twitter claims that it saw “less overall advertiser demand than expected,” a worrying trend that could continue into the third quarter.

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Regarding the future, Twitter’s outlook has consequently taken a hit, with the company expecting revenue to be in the range of $590-610 million. That’s well below analysts’ expectations of $670 million. Wall Street is reportedly shocked by the overall figures, which represent Twitter’s slowest quarterly revenue growth since the firm went public.

Dorsey can’t have been too surprised by speculation mounting over a prospective Twitter buyout. Faced with the question, he remarked that the platform is a “service of importance” with “so much farther to go.” The statement aligns with the general message in the company’s letter to shareholders, which fundamentally asserts that Dorsey’s vision still needs time to come to fruition.

The strategy, as outlined by Twitter, includes its big bet on live-streaming, which Twitter believes can bring in lucrative video advertising dollars. A new marketing campaign, launched yesterday, also puts the emphasis on the platform’s live news credentials. Combined with its focus on real-time video, Twitter evidently believes that it can attract users by encouraging spectatorship over participation. Other upcoming changes, that will affect Twitter’s more active users, include an uptick in notifications in regards to breaking news events.

The quarter itself, on the other hand, saw little signs of life in regards to user growth. Twitter added 3 million users to reach a total of 313 million monthly active users, a pallid increase of just 3 per cent year-over-year.

In comparison, Twitter’s rivals (including Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat) have gone from strength to strength, particularly in regards to mobile advertising revenue, and user growth. Twitter is asking for patience, but after a year at the helm, many feel Dorsey has failed to deliver. One thing is for sure, time is no longer on his side.

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Saqib Shah
Saqib Shah
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Saqib Shah is a Twitter addict and film fan with an obsessive interest in pop culture trends. In his spare time he can be…
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While the original reports didn’t have much to say about why Dorsey was stepping down, or when it would be happening, it didn’t take long for the erstwhile CEO to share the news himself. In his tweet, Dorsey includes a screenshot of the email that he sent internally to Twitter employees, describing it as part of his desire for Twitter “to be the most transparent company ever.” 
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Dorsey's past with Twitter has been marred by controversies
Over the years, Dorsey has had a somewhat tumultuous relationship with the company that he helped to create in 2006. He initially served as CEO until 2008, but was pushed out of the role after his co-founder Evan Williams and the board felt that he was unfit to lead the growing social media company. 
While Dorsey remained with Twitter as chairman of the board, he refocused most of his attention elsewhere, forming the popular mobile payment company Square. Once that was up and running, Dorsey rejoined Twitter in early 2011 to focus on product development, dividing his time between that and his ongoing work at Square. 
After four more years of struggling to come up with a long-term vision, Twitter’s board returned Dorsey to the position of permanent CEO of Twitter in fall 2015, replacing Dick Costolo, who had taken over from Williams in 2010.
During Dorsey’s second tenure, he’s presided over a social network that’s faced some significantly new and different challenges. 

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