Twitter hits 330m MAUs in Q3 2017, sees booming ad engagement

It’s that time of year when the big tech companies announce their third quarter (Q3) financial results, and Twitter just happens to be on that very long list.

The social network hasn’t been enjoying a positive 2017 thus far, but its latest results suggests a mini turnaround of sorts is currently in progress.

Twitter grew its monthly active userbase by 4% year-on-year (compared to Q3 2016), and now hosts 330-million monthly users. That’s a four-million user increase from the previous quarter, which the company also made a point of correcting.

“Reported average MAU reflects an adjustment for approximately 1-2 million users per quarter of certain third-party applications that were included as Twitter MAUs that should not have been considered MAUs in certain prior periods; DAU [daily average users – ed] were not affected,” the company clarified.

It did however gain just one million US users, with three million signing up beyond US borders.

Twitter now boasts 330-million users, a spike of 4% year-over-year

Daily active users also grew by 14% year-on-year — its most notably growth spurt since Q1 2017.

“Twitter’s engagement and audience are growing,” the company wrote in its shareholder letter.

“We continued to make progress toward a return to revenue growth in Q3, with revenue decreasing 4% year-over-year and increasing 3% sequentially.”

Revenue topped US$590-million in Q3 2017, this due to dips both internationally (-11%) and in the United States (-6%). Advertising revenue also saw a dip of 8% year-over-year, but engagements are up nearly 100%.

Advertising accounted for US$503-million of its revenue figure.

“Growth in both audience and engagement was driven by a combination of organic growth, marketing, and product, including the ongoing benefits of improved relevance in email, push notifications, and the timeline,” the company notes.

“We also drove increased usage with the Twitter redesign and enhanced personalisation in the Explore tab.”

And speaking of redesigns, the company’s video and live statistics are also worth noting.

It saw over 830 livestreamed events on its platform (up from 625 in Q2 2017), with 74% of those streamed globally. Notably, it also boasts 30 new deals to broadcast on Twitter in Q3 2017 with the likes of Converse and Tommy Hilfiger.

Periscope also featured in the shareholders letter, suggesting that 96-million hours of user generated livestreams were broadcast via the streaming platform. That’s up from 76-million hours in Q2 2017.

Video and advertising continue to feature as Twitter’s likely future growth areas.

“Video remained our largest ad format in Q3, reflecting strength in both In-Stream Sponsorships and In-Stream Video Ads,” it notes.

“Our live events and In-Stream Video Ads continue to deliver great reach across a large variety of premium content categories to advertisers, and have been a source of significant growth within our advertising business.”

Soon after its Q3 2017 report was released, Twitter’s shares spiked 18.5% to US$20.31.