Twitter recorded $1.29 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2020 according to a quarterly report released Tuesday by the US-based microblogging web service, sending its share price up 3.47% in after hours trading.
The social media site was a key battle site in the 2020 American election, ad after by blocking former President Donald Trump from the site for inciting violence, though Dorsey made it clear on a Tuesday earnings call with analysts that the company had more to offer than a forum for political debate.
“We’re a platform that is obviously much larger than any one topic or any one account,” the founder said.
In a letter to shareholders this week, the company referenced “unusual circumstances” in the fourth quarter, which may refer to the permanent account suspension of Trump in early January.
Trump posted tweets inciting supporters to storm the nation’s Capital, leading to four deaths and forcing Twitter to close his account “under our glorification of violence policy, which aims to prevent [...] others from replicating violent acts,” it said at the time.
“We are not just dependent upon news and politics being what drives Twitter, [which] is why I believe being able to follow topics and interests is so critical and so important,” Dorsey said on Tuesday.
The website’s number of monetizable daily active users (mDAUs) grew by 5 million to 192 million in the fourth quarter, but fell 1.5 million users short of analyst’ predictions for the second quarter running.
“Cost of revenue grew 38% to $433 million, driven by traffic acquisition costs, revenue share from partnerships, and public cloud-related expenses,” the company said in a statement.
Domestic revenue grew 24% to reach $733 million, while international revenue rose as well by 34% to top $556 million.
Looking forward, the company expects mDAU to increase by 20% in the first quarter with revenue outstripping expenses in 2021.
