Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey addresses students during a town hall at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in New Delhi, India, November 12, 2018.
Anushree Fadnavis | Reuters
Twitter is set to report earnings for its fourth quarter of 2019 before the bell on Thursday.
Here are the key numbers Wall Street expects:
- Earnings per share: $0.29 expected, according to Refinitiv consensus estimate
- Revenue: $996.7 million expected, according to Refinitv
- Monetizable Daily Active Users (mDAUs): 147.5 million total expected, according to StreetAccount
Last quarter, Twitter reported “a number of headwinds” that contributed to its revenue shortfall, sending the stock down more than 20%. Twitter found several issues with its Mobile Application Promotion (MAP) product that it said hurt its ability to target ads and share measurement data with partners.
Executives warned shareholders that the headwinds would continue to be reflected for the entirety of the fourth quarter and will “continue to weigh on the overall performance of our advertising business in the near term.” CFO Ned Segal said the effects could even “bleed over” into 2020.
This will be the third time Twitter will report only monetizable daily active users (mDAUs), rather the industry standard monthly active users (MAUs) it previously reported. Twitter says mDAUs are not comparable to similar metrics from other companies, which it says are more expansive. Its new figure measures “Twitter users who log in and access Twitter on any given day through Twitter.com or our Twitter applications that are able to show ads,” according to the company.
Twitter has remained focus on initiatives that make the platform safe and accessible for users. On Tuesday it released a new policy to tackle deepfakes and other forms of synthetic or manipulated media. Twitter said in its announcement that it prioritizes limiting potential serious harm that could stem from user-posted content.
The policy came as Twitter and other social media companies are seeking to firm up their platforms and policies ahead of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The company is now allowing users an option to report content specifically for including misleading information about how to participate in an election.
Twitter also made the bold decision to eliminate political ads altogether, a more sweeping approach than other digital ad providers. CEO Jack Dorsey said on Twitter in October that it would be “not credible” for Twitter to tell users it’s committed to halting the spread of misinformation while allowing advertisers to pay the company to target users with political ads.
—CNBC’s Sara Salinas contributed to this report.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.
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