For the first time in over a year, Twitter’s monthly active users haven’t increased

By Hillary K. Grigonis Published July 30, 2017

twitter auto crops improve with ai — Twindesign/123RF

After adding 9 million users in the first three months of the year, Twitter’s total active monthly user count shows that no one is signing up for new accounts — or at least not at a rate higher than users leaving the social media platform. While user numbers were not what the platform was hoping for, revenue was higher than expected, with news of another advertising option in beta for automatic boosted posts through a monthly subscription. Twitter shared the growth data as part of its second quarter earnings for 2017.

The report shows that, in those three months, around 2 million users in the U.S. left the platform, while Twitter gained around a million international users. Considering active monthly users, the platform stayed stagnant at 328 million users.

Recommended Videos

While monthly numbers didn’t change from the first part of the year, compared to last year, Twitter has more people using the platform every day, with around a 12 percent growth over the same time in 2016.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Twitter fans shouldn’t worry too much about the lack of growth, however — while the total users stayed the same, financially, the company reported growth compared to the first part of the year. The platform went above and beyond Wall Street’s predictions with a revenue totaling $574 million.

Vine’s shutdown has many investors concerned with the financial future of the company, but the latest reports suggest Twitter is not staying stagnant on income. To add another potential revenue option, the platform is now testing an option to automatically boost Tweets for $99 a month. The idea is to take the time out of promoting individual tweets, since individual tweets are automatically boosted, and participants will see the results in a bi-weekly analytical report.

Twitter is testing a $99 per mth ad subscription that auto-amplifies all your tweets and your profile pic.twitter.com/rIgJ3vW1hF

— Matt Navarra ⭐️ (@MattNavarra) July 28, 2017

Twitter is only testing the feature for now, however, so it is unclear if the automatic ad subscription will roll out to all users or not. The beta test of the feature is only available to users by invitation, according to a tweet by one user.

Topics

Hillary K. Grigonis

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Hillary never planned on becoming a photographer—and then she was handed a camera at her first writing job and she's been…

Mobile

Thanks to Tapbots’ Ivory app, I’m finally ready to ditch Twitter for good

Ever since Elon Musk took ownership of Twitter, it’s been one chaotic new thing after another. You literally cannot go a day (or a few days or even a week) without some stupid new change to the site — whether it’s about checkmarks for verified or Twitter Blue subscriber accounts, how links to other social networks are banned and then reversed, view counts on Tweets, or something else. I can’t keep up with every little thing that has happened since the beginning of November, and it feels like the spotlight is always on the toxicity of the site in general.

New Twitter alternatives have been popping up recently, but it seems that the most popular one continues to be Mastodon. I originally made a Mastodon account back in 2018 when it first launched, but it never clicked with me back then, and I eventually went back to Twitter. With the Musk mess, I tried going back to Mastodon, but again, it didn’t really click with me — until Tweetbot developer, Tapbots, revealed its next project: Ivory.
The significance of Tapbots and Tweetbot

Social Media

What is Twitter Blue and is it worth it?

Twitter Blue menu option on a white screen background which is on a black background.

If you spend time on Twitter, you've probably heard the phrase "Twitter Blue" at some point and wondered what exactly it is. We're not talking about the signature shade of blue featured in its logo -- we're talking about the premium version of Twitter.

That's right. There's a paid tier for Twitter that many people don't even know exists that launched in July of 2021. And then relaunched again under Elon Musk's ownership in November 2022. Don't worry -- we'll explain everything below.
What is Twitter Blue?

Social Media

What is Mastodon? Here’s why everyone’s talking about this Twitter alternative

Series of four mobile screenshots showing Mastodon's sign-up process.

By now you've no doubt heard about Mastodon. It's a social media platform that's been bandied about as an alternative to Twitter, particularly among users who aren't comfortable with the direction Twitter is going in now that Elon Musk is at the helm.

In fact, since Musk first announced that he was planning on buying the popular microblogging platform, Mastodon has garnered quite a bit of attention and experienced significant growth. But though you've likely heard about Mastodon, you may not be familiar with how it works or haven't decided whether or not it would be a good fit for you if you ever choose to leave Twitter and need an alternative social media platform. Don't worry. We've got you covered. In this guide, we'll get you up to speed on everything you need to know about social media's buzziest new platform.
What is Mastodon?