By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 22nd, 2024
Shortly after Elon Musk’s buyout, Twitter posted Q1 2022 earnings report revealing a 16% increase in revenue and 15.9% increase in mDAUs.
Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) recently released its Q1 earnings report for 2022, which showed a revenue increase to $1.2 billion. This comes a few days after billionaire businessman Elon Musk acquired the social media giant.
The increased revenue represented a 16% gain from the same period last year but still fell about $30 million shy of analysts’ estimates. Meanwhile, Twitter’s net income for the quarter that ended March 31st was $513 million. The social media giant primarily ascribed the figure to the sale of its MoPub mobile ad platform. Furthermore, the microblogging platform’s earnings per share (EPS) stood at 61 cents.
In addition, for Q1 2022, Twitter reported a monetizable daily active user (mDAU) base of around 229 million. This number comfortably clears the consensus estimate of 226.9 million and represents an increase of 15.9% YoY.
In the US, Twitter’s mDAUs grew by 6.4% from the same period last year at 39.6 million. Meanwhile, international mDAUs came in at 189.4 million, representing an 18.1% increase from the prior year’s quarter. However, Twitter also revealed a prior miscalculation in active user figures between 2019 and 2021, overstating user numbers by up to 2%. As the social media company explained in a statement:
“An error was made at that time, such that actions taken via the primary account resulted in all linked accounts being counted as mDAU. This resulted in an overstatement of mDAU from Q1’19 through Q4’21.”
Twitter stock was trading approximately 1% higher in premarket trading.
Twitter Q1 2022 Report Could Be Swan Song as Public Company
Twitter’s latest quarterly report could be one of its last as a public company after selling out to Musk for $44 billion. Musk previously stated he planned to take the social networking service platform private in order to preserve “free speech.” Furthermore, due to the Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO’s acquisition three days ago, Twitter also stated that it would skip a post-earnings conference call. A statement issued by the company read:
“In light of the proposed transaction with Mr. Musk, as is customary during the pendency of an acquisition, Twitter will not be hosting a conference call, issuing a shareholder letter, or providing financial guidance in conjunction with its first quarter 2022 earnings release.”
Prior to the acceptance of Musk’s bid for Twitter, analysts speculated that the company favored selling before the quarterly report. According to these analysts, this was because Twitter anticipated less-than-stellar earnings for the first quarter of the year.
What Does a Musk-owned Twitter Portend for Its Future?
Since Musk’s acquisition, there have been debates about the kind of impact the world’s richest man will have on Twitter. In addition to his “free speech” mantra, Musk also addressed issues with spam bots and overhauling key modes of operation. In addition, the Tesla CEO also hinted at the acceptance of crypto – particularly Dogecoin (DOGE) for premium services.