Twitter’s Traffic Improved on World Cup Frenzy

By Sarah Price - 30 Jul '14 11:41AM

Twitter Inc., the social media website, revealed in its second quarter earnings report that its user base expanded 6.3 percent in the three month period ended June 30, 2014. It credited the 2014 FIFA World Cup frenzy for the spike.

Twitter reportedly added 16 million global users in the second quarter and all its existing users logged in at least once a month. Especially with the FIFA World Cup, several users interacted and logged in to check scores frequently, CEO Dick Costolo was cited by the Wall Street Journal.

"During the World Cup, we delivered the kind of events experience that I've wanted to see from us for some time," Costolo told analysts at a conference call.

"We served up tailored experiences for each individual match and for the overall World Cup and these experiences felt alive. They felt wonderfully complementary to the matches themselves," he said. "That has given me confidence that we can create great user experiences by organizing content around topics and live events."

Not only did the dwindling traffic increase but its revenue also went up. The micro-blogging site's revenue was up 124 percent on a quarter-on-quarter basis. The strong report sent Twitter's shares soaring more than 24 percent on Wednesday's pre-market trading.

However, Twitter noted that global usage was down 7 percent from the last quarter. This still remains an area of concern for the website.

"Twitter needs to answer the question about whether it can ever become a mass-market product, or whether it's more destined to be a niche for news junkies. Depending on how fast it's growing, that's what we're willing to pay for it," Robert Peck, analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Inc. told Bloomberg in an earlier interview.

Some experts are skeptical of Twitter's expanded user base too.

"What you're seeing now is a World Cup bump," Debra Aho Williamson, a principal analyst with the research firm eMarketer told The New York Times.

"The proof will be what their numbers look like next quarter, and the quarter after."