Daily Twitter users rise 20 percent to 199 million

The number of people using Twitter every day has increased by 33 million people in one year. In the first quarter of 2021, the platform still had 199 million of these daily active users. This increase was strongest outside the United States.

Last quarter, Twitter had an average of 38 million users from the US, the company reports in a statement to the quarterly figures. This is five million more than in the first quarter of 2020. The number of active international users increased from 133 million to 162 million over the same period. In the last quarter of 2020, the platform still had 192 million active users.

In a letter to shareholders, Twitter says the increase is due to “improvements to the product and global conversations around current events.” The platform mentions a ‘significant influx’ of new users due to the corona pandemic. The company says that last year is difficult to compare with other years and expects that the significant increase in users will not continue this year. The number of active users is likely to increase the least of all quarters this year in the second quarter, the company says. For the last two quarters, Twitter expects ‘lower, double-digit growth’.

The daily users that Twitter mentions are the active daily users from which the company can make “easy” money. An increase in the number of active users therefore also means that the platform can generate more turnover. That turnover increased by 28 percent in the first quarter compared to a year earlier. In the first quarter of 2021, the company had a turnover of EUR 854.9 million.

Although the company has more users outside of the US, its sales remain strongest within the US. Within the US that turnover was converted to 458.9 million euros, outside the US the turnover was 396.2 million euros. Sales outside the US rose more than twice as fast as within that country.

The bulk of the turnover came from advertisers, with 742 million euros. The rest came from ‘data licenses and other revenue’. The operating profit in the first quarter was 42.9 million euros. A year earlier, there was still a loss of 5.8 million euros. The company expects to further increase its profits this year.