Twitter (TWTR) is scheduled to report results of its third fiscal quarter after the market close on Thursday, October 29, with a conference call scheduled for 5:00 pm ET. What to watch:
1. USER METRICS: Twitter's monetizable daily active usage, or mDAU, is a closely watched measure of its popularity and growth potential. Last quarter, the company reported global monetizable daily active usage increased 12% sequentially to 186M and 34% year-over-year, while the company's U.S. base increased 7% sequentially to 36M, an increase of 24% year-over-year. "Our product work is paying off, with tremendous growth in audience and engagement. We grew mDAU to 186 million, a 34% year over year increase in Q2, the highest quarterly year-over-year growth rate we've delivered since we began reporting mDAU growth,” said CEO Jack Dorsey at the time.
2. AD REVENUE: In Q1, the company reported ad revenue of $562M, down 23% year-over-year or 22% on a constant currency basis. The company also reported total ad engagements rose 3% year-over-year and cost per engagement decreased 25% year-over year. At the time, the company said, "We previously noted that in Q1, widespread economic disruption and a significant decrease in global advertising spend as a result of the pandemic led to a 27% decline in advertising revenue in the last three weeks of March. We saw a gradual, moderate recovery relative to March levels throughout most of Q2, with the exception of late May to mid-June, when many brands slowed or paused spend in reaction to US civil unrest. During the last three weeks of June, advertising revenue declined 15% year over year. Demand gradually improved once brands returned after the protests subsided.”
3. NEW FEATURES, UPDATES: In July, Twitter removed thousands of accounts that spread messages about the conspiracy theories known as QAnon, saying their messages could lead to harm and violated Twitter policy. In August, the company announced it was adding new labels for government and state-affiliated media accounts as well as a feature allowing users to choose who can reply to their tweets. Twitter also announced in August that it had rebuilt its Twitter Transparency Report site into the Twitter Transparency Center to make transparency reporting more easily understood and accessible to the general public. In September, the company expanded its misinformation policies ahead of the U.S. election to target “the most directly harmful types of content” as well as launched a 2020 U.S. election hub with voting information in English and Spanish. Additionally in September, Twitter announced a partnership with WebMD.
4. TWITTER HACK: Many prominent accounts on Twitter were hacked to tweet out messages relating to an apparent bitcoin-related (BTC) scam. The Verge initially reported in July that the accounts of Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk and Microsoft (MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates were compromised to tweet about doubling bitcoin payments. Both accounts included an identical bitcoin wallet address. The Verge added that Square's (SQ) Cash App account also appeared to have been hacked. CNBC reported later that hackers appear to have targeted the accounts of Apple (AAPL), Uber (UBER), and Amazon (AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos, as well as the accounts of Kanye West, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and former VP and current Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. The Twitter account of former President Barack Obama was also compromised in the hack. Following the incident, Twitter confirmed internal tools had been accessed for the attack but said there was "no evidence" attackers accessed passwords. The company also said about 130 people were targeted in the attack. Following the hack, Twitter decided to delay the launch of its new API and reported later that hackers had accessed the direct messages of some of the high profile accounts. The Justice Department charged three people for their alleged roles in the hack at the end of July.
