Twitter shares soar in US after earnings report

By Barry Eitel

SAN FRANCISCO (AA) – Shares of Twitter soared more than 12 percent on Wednesday after the company released a sunny first quarter earnings report.

Twitter reported that user growth was above investor expectation, although revenue for the company dipped for the first time ever.

The positive tone of the first quarter report rebuffs several consecutive quarters of stagnating user growth, questions about the leadership of Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey and calls from investors about putting the famed micro-blogging platform up for sale.

"We're encouraged by the audience growth momentum we saw in the first quarter," Dorsey said in a statement.

The service now counts 328 million monthly active users, a 6 percent increase from the same quarter in 2016. During the first quarter, which ended on March 31, 9 million active monthly users were added.

The company noted that politics could be driving the growth – United States President Donald Trump, one of Twitter’s most famous users, took over the White House during the first quarter of 2017.

Chief Operating Officer Anthony Noto pointed to “some evidence that we benefited from our new and resurrected users following more news and political accounts in Q1, particularly in the U.S,” he said during a conference call Wednesday with investors. “That's a really positive thing.”

Noto also told Buzzfeed News ahead of the earnings report that Twitter is planning to create a video service that will stream content continuously, like television.

Twitter stock closed at $15.82 per share on Wednesday, nearly 8 percent higher than the previous day’s close.