JACK DORSEY BELIEVES in Twitter’s future. “Twitter’s here to stay!” he tweeted just before yesterday’s Superbowl. “By becoming more Twitter-y!”
The public markets, however, do not share his enthusiasm. The company, which will report fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday, was valued at just more than $10 billion when it closed today—down from a 2013 high of $40 billion. That’s less than Pinterest ($11 billion) and Snapchat ($16 billion) are valued in the private markets.
The pessimism follows a questionable Super Bowl social turnout. In 2015, Twitter reported 28.4 million tweets that contained terms related to the Super Bowl or halftime show (Katy Perry!). In 2016, the company’s measures of its own success were long on creativity—but didn’t report a comparable number.
Meanwhile, four top executives left Twitter last month, including the head of engineering, the head of product, the head of human resources, and the head of global media. Though Twitter also hired a new chief marketing officer, former Amex exec Leslie Berland, none of the vacancies have been filled permanently.
Most concerning, user growth remains nearly flat. Twitter reported 307 million monthly active users last quarter, a growth of only three percent over the past quarter. (This number excludes “fast followers,” who follow Twitter on SMS.)
Rumors abound that Twitter will introduce changes to its feed that will alter the chronological order in which we see Tweets. Dorsey took to Twitter to deny it. But rumors—of executive departures, potential product changes, and employee unrest—seem to be part of the culture of the company. Maybe Dorsey’s wrong: the problem is that Twitter needs to be less, well, Twitter-y.
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