Twitter's stock took a significant premarket hit Thursday after the company reported that it missed third-quarter revenue and advertising expectations due to several "headwinds," like product issues and greater-than-expected advertising setbacks in July and August.
The state of play: The company blamed a series of bugs that impacted its ability to monetize users' engagement, including a bug that was revealed earlier this quarter that allowed users' phone numbers and email addresses to be used for advertising micro-targeting.
- Our thought bubble: While bugs don't reflect greater existential market threats like regulation, they can point to Twitter's struggle to be mindful of user privacy while also innovating its ad product.
- Yes, but: Despite monetization issues, the company was able to add 6 million monthly "monetizable daily active users" — the in-house metric it now uses to measure how many people engage daily with its platform.
By the numbers, via CNBC:
- Earnings per share: 17 cents, vs. 20 cents expected
- Revenue: $823.7 million, vs $874.0 million expected
- Monetizable daily active users: 145 million
What's next: The company upped its guidance for the following quarter, suggesting that it would make up for the third-quarter declines in coming months.
