Twitter’s new Chief Financial Officer, Ned Segal
John Chiala | CNBC
Twitter has no plans to enter the Chinese market, where the social media platform is blocked.
Instead, the company is focused on improving user experience in markets where it is accessible and has about 145 million monetizable daily active users, Twitter Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal told CNBC’s “Street Signs” on Tuesday.
The company wants to make sure users “can trust the information that they see on the service and that they can be a part of the conversation and feel safe while doing so,” he said.
Like other social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube, Twitter has also faced backlash from lawmakers around the world for failing to contain the spread of false information during election campaigns. Since then, those companies have ramped up efforts to tackle disinformation by banning suspect accounts and removing fake content.
Advertising is a big part of Twitter’s business and the company has introduced services that drive better relevance, improved ad formats and helped advertisers use video to connect with customers, Segal explained.
“We look to help more advertisers and our existing base of advertisers do a better job launching new products and services and connecting with what’s happening,” he said.
In its third-quarter earnings last week, the company missed expectations, citing product issues and advertising challenges for the revenue shortfall. Advertising revenue for the quarter was $702 million, up 8% on-year, but noticeably short of the $756 million predicted by analysts in a FactSet survey.
Twitter said its “Mobile Application Promotion” suite of products, which help advertisers promote the download of mobile apps on the platform, was a major problem area — identified bugs affected its ability to target ads and share data with measurement and ad partners.
A second, improved version of the software suite is in the works, according to the company, but it doesn’t know when it’ll be ready.
