*By Carlo Versano*
Twitter shares are surging Thursday after the company smashed its third-quarter earnings report, posting a nearly 30 percent increase in year-over-year revenue and a 9 percent increase in the all-important daily active user metric. The release did not disclose the actual number of DAUs.
Shortly before 10 a.m., shares were soaring more than 17 percent, despite the report also disclosing a decline in monthly active users ー from 335 million in the second quarter to 326 million. It's a drop of 4 million year-on-year. Twitter ($TWTR) said that was in part due to a mass culling of bot, troll and fake accounts. The company said there were 20 percent fewer malicious or spammy account sign-ups from the previous quarter, thanks to "decisions we have made to prioritize the health of the platform."
On the earnings call, CEO Jack Dorsey said those decisions will act as a "growth vector" long term. In a statement attached to the earnings release, he said:
"This quarter’s strong results prove we can prioritize the long-term health of Twitter while growing the number of people who participate in public conversation.”
He added: "We're also continuing to introduce improvements that make it easier for people to follow events, topics and interests on Twitter, like adding support for US TV shows in our new event infrastructure."
After years of burning cash, this marks Twitter's fourth consecutive quarter of showing profitability.
Twitter posted adjusted earnings of 21 cents a share on revenue of $758 million. It was the company's fourth straight quarter of profit.
Shares posted their biggest gains in a year.
The Biden administration and major consumer technology players on Tuesday launched an effort to put a nationwide cybersecurity certification and labeling program in place to help consumers choose smart devices that are less vulnerable to hacking.
Elon Musk says Twitter is still losing cash because advertising has dropped by half. In a reply to a tweet offering business advice, Musk tweeted Saturday, “We’re still negative cash flow, due to (about a) 50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load.”
A First Amendment group sued Texas Governor Greg Abbott and others on Thursday over the state’s TikTok ban on official devices, arguing the prohibition – which extends to public universities – is unconstitutional and impedes academic freedom.
We've all heard the phrase time equals money. Well, Shopify has rolled out a meeting cost calculator in efforts to encourage people to empty their calendars of those unnecessary meetings.
ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and The Associated Press said Thursday that they've made a deal for the artificial intelligence company to license AP's archive of news stories.
Alexander Mashinsky, the former CEO of the failed cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network, has been arrested on federal fraud charges, including wire fraud, according to CNBC.
