Twitter has announced Q2 2019 revenues of $841 million — a year-on-year (YoY) increase of around 18% from the $711 million the social network reported for the same period last year and a 5% jump from the $787 million for the previous quarter.
The company’s domestic growth is of particular note, with its U.S. revenue climbing 24% YoY, compared to the 12% of international income. Additionally, Twitter claimed “better than expected” profitability, with an operating income of $76 million, after hitting its first ever quarterly profit last year, marking its seventh straight profitable quarter.
This was also the first quarter the San Francisco-based social network didn’t report monthly active users (MAUs), instead focusing squarely on what it calls “monetizable daily active users” (mDAUs), which jumped to 139 million — up 14% YoY and 4% on the previous quarter. The 17 million mDAU hike over the past 12 months can be broken down into 3 million users in the U.S. and 14 million internationally.
Wall Street estimates leading up to today’s earnings announcement pegged Twitter’s Q2 revenue at roughly $829 million, while Twitter itself estimated its Q2 revenues at between $770 million and $830 million. In short, today’s numbers trumped all estimates, with Twitter crediting its U.S. ad revenue as the chief driver.
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Sticking point
A major sticking point for Twitter has been its stalled user growth, particularly compared to the likes of Facebook, which has broadly continued to grow its user base across its suite of apps. By way of example, during the corresponding period last year, Twitter announced 1 million fewer MAUs, and in Q4 2018 it dropped 5 million monthly users compared to the previous quarter — despite record revenues. For Q1 2019, Twitter reported a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) MAU increase of 9 million users, with 330 million in total.
These wild fluctuations, and the fact that not all MAUs are created equal, led Twitter to announce back in February that it would instead focus on mDAUs. These are what it defines as individuals who log in through twitter.com or any of the mobile apps that are able to show advertisements — so excluding TweetDeck and third-party clients.
Twitter had previously revealed that its mDAUs had grown throughout 2018 from 120 million to 126 million, and for the previous quarter (Q1 2019) it reported mDAUs of 134 million — an 11% YoY increase.
Twitter’s shares have been fairly volatile since it went public in 2013. Hitting a high of around $70 in 2014, its stock bounced between $30 and $50 a share over the next couple of years before plummeting in 2016 to an all-time low of $14, where it hovered for more than a year. The company has largely recovered over the past 18 months, hitting a 52-week high of $44 last July before settling around the $35-$40 mark in recent months.
In the wake of its Q2 2019 financials announcement, Twitter’s shares spiked more than 6% premarket, crossing the $40 threshold after a $38.12 close yesterday.
Looking to the future, Twitter anticipates lower revenue growth for Q3 2019, with expectations in the $815 million to $875 million range, due in part to the recent resurgence of its business globally — the higher its recent earnings, the tougher it is to beat. The company said its planned deprecation of legacy ad formats will also impact future revenues.
