Twitter Disappoints in its First Quarterly Report Post IPO. Shares Take a Hit.

After going public on November 6th last year, Twitter Inc has unveiled its first quarterly report ending on December 31st. And it will be fair to say that it was quite a letdown.

The report revealed that Twitter had a disappointing pace of user growth. Twitter averaged 241 million users in the fourth quarter which is just 9 million more than in the third quarter, an increase of less than 4%, and depicts the lowest growth rate quarter over quarter since Twitter began revealing is figures. Despite this a positive for Twitter was that its mobile user base grew by about 37%.

Shares of Twitter reached a high of $74.73 in December after it opened at $26 and is currently trading at $56 which is quite lower than the price at which it was trading a couple of day back (around $66).

Twitter’s shares fell as much as 18 percent in after-hours trading post declaration of its first financial report.

The company’s revenue in the fourth quarter, which ended Dec. 31, was $243 million, up 116 percent from $112 million in the fourth quarter of 2012. The earnings per share were $0.02. But on the other hand, Twitter reported a net loss of $511 million, compared to a loss of $8.7 million last year.

The company, however, impressed various analysts by recording a growth in their advertising revenue. The company brought in $1.49 per 1,000 timeline views, or refreshes of its feed, compared to 97 cents in the previous quarter.

What Next?

The point to be considered is, will Twitter ever lure a mainstream audience or whether it is satisfied with the tag of a platform whose name everyone knows but not everyone uses?

Despite all the public figures and politicians who have indulged into using this service, many people still don't find it to be user friendly. While they need advertisers, they also need users to whom those advertisers can advertise to. The increase in the advertising revenue might be a positive sign for Twitter but it needs to capitalize on the same by increasing its user base before it is too late.

Moreover, it is yet to reach the engagement levels of Facebook. Since Twitter has had a decent increase in the number of mobile user base, it should be looking at expanding their product line and features to draw in more users through mobile.

Twitter is focussing a lot more on becoming the preferred choice as the second screen and reports also suggest that it plans to dive deep into Ecommerce. Do you think these will help Twitter in the long run? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.