Twitter revealed weaker-than-expected earnings results at the end of April, citing advertising as the problem; however, do not be fooled into thinking that this social network is on a permanent slide.
Twitter is not making as much revenue from advertising as it thought it would, and it is not growing its user numbers as quickly as it has previously. Just short of 300 million users globally, it considerably lags behind that giant of the social network landscape Facebook, which has 1.4 billion users.
However, Twitter will endure. Why is this? For one thing, Twitter users are more mature, in age. The older you are, the less likely you are to ditch a particular online platform because it is no longer seen as being fashionable enough. Twitter is unlikely to go the way of MySpace and Bebo.
Another reason why Twitter will endure is that the market fundamentals backing it up remain strong. Advertisers may still be struggling to figure out how exactly to leverage Twitter, but the global media has no such problem. Twitter remains the platform of choice for journalists and celebrities, and other key opinion-makers show no sign of growing tired of it either, even in the face of stiff competition from Facebook and Instagram. The 2015 UK general election showed the power of Twitter as far as the media is concerned, with the election count and its aftermath trending on Twitter through the night and into the next day.
Undoubtedly, Twitter has a problem in that original content has given way to an extent to repetitive commentary and repeated outrage. As a result, Twitter has shifted from being a service where interaction between users was key into a platform that users merely glance at, reluctant to click away from a headline. This could be one of the reasons why Twitter is struggling to develop its ad revenue base. If users are increasingly cynical about the organic content they see on the social network, they may be even less tolerant of ads. However, as long as Twitter remains popular with opinion-formers, its future looks assured.
