LONDON: Twitter said it added 8-million core users that log in at least once a month but lost another 4-million due to “changes in third-party integrations,” giving it 288-million for the year ended December 31.
On the analysts’ conference call, Twitter executives blamed the 4-million in losses in users on the rollout of Apple’s iOS 8 software, and the fact that the fourth quarter is usually the weakest. How did iOS 8 cause Twitter to lose 4-million users? Twitter said the change to iOS 8 erased 1-million Twitter users because they forgot their password or never re-downloaded the app after updating the software.
On a conference call with analysts, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo attributed a portion of this loss to an “unforeseen bug in the release of iOS 8” without elaborating further. A Twitter spokesman later clarified that the issue pertained to Twitter’s integration of the new operating system.
Apple declined to comment. Another 3-million users were lost because Apple changed a feature called “Shared Links” in the Safari mobile browser where people can see links from users they follow on Twitter.
In iOS 7, the feature automatically pulled this content even when people didn’t have it open, giving Twitter’s servers the impression the people were using Twitter even if they weren’t.
With iOS 8, “Shared Links” only asks Twitter for information when people open that part of the mobile browser and 3-million people didn’t do that during the quarter.
Twitter had run into questions about these “third-party users” in the past when it appeared that the number of these accounts users who never log directly into Twitter.com or the mobile apps doubled in the second quarter from a year earlier. Twitter later adjusted the figure to be more specific. Twitter said that about 8.5% of its 288-million monthly active users may be accounts linked to third-party apps that are automatically pinging Twitter without actually interacting with the content.
The slowing growth comes at a critical time for Twitter, which has been battling naysayers about its mainstream potential since going public in November 2013. It’s also the first time that Twitter’s quarterly user growth has fallen below that of Facebook, whose monthly active user base last quarter grew about 3% to 1.39-billion.
Twitter executives suggested the meagre growth is just a blip, saying the numbers should rebound in the coming quarters. Twitter has in recent months been trying to sell Wall Street on the idea that there are money-making opportunities with people who don’t use Twitter, so it will likely argue on the analysts’ call that its audience extends far beyond its core base.
In fact, earlier this week it signed deals with Flipboard and Yahoo Japan to insert ads into a Twitter feed on those sites. Analysts remain sceptical, and believe that the core user base is the most valuable. Twitter’s closely watched number nearly overshadows Twitter’s success on the revenue front. The company said fourth-quarter revenue nearly doubled to $479m, driven by the advertising business.
