14 DAY TRIAL // Twitter admits that Donald Trump’s interest in the platform and heavy use of it is good for business, but it seems that not even the Donald himself can make the company’s business profitable.
“The president’s use of Twitter has broadened the awareness of how the platform can be used. It shows the power of Twitter,” said Twitter CFO Anthony Noto during the fourth quarter earnings call earlier today.
On the other hand, the Twitter chief admits that it’s hard for a single person to drive sustained growth. The short version is that Trump’s antics on Twitter, including slamming his daughter’s business partners and then retweeting his personal account over on @POTUS, are not going to bring in masses of new users.
The service has 319 million active users, which is up 4% compared to the previous year. In the final quarter of 2016 Twitter only grew by a mere 2 million users. The social network reported a loss of $167 million in the final three months of 2016, compared to the $90 million it lost in the same period of 2015. In total, the company’s revenue rose 1% to $717 million.
Twitter has been heavily criticized in the past few months as Trump’s tweets often turned to tirades. The company has been accused that it would just sit by and watch as Trump violates its rules on hate speech and abuse just because he’s such a magnet for people who are hoping to see the trainwreck as it happens.
While the company hasn’t really addressed these issues, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has come out against Trump’s immigrant ban, much like the rest of the tech industry. Furthermore, Twitter employees donated $1.6 million to the American Civil Liberties Union who is fighting Trump’s ban in court.