Twitter’s user growth issue just hit a wall.
In its fourth quarter 2015 earnings announcement today, Twitter revealed it now has 320 million monthly active users (up 9 percent year over year). On a sequential basis, Twitter didn’t add any monthly active users — the company reported 320 million monthly active users for its Q3 2015.
Analysts had expected Twitter to report 325 million monthly users, or a 1.5 percent sequential growth. Instead, Twitter grew its user base 0 percent sequentially.
Twitter’s user number includes both traditional active users as well as what Twitter refers to as “SMS Fast Followers” (people who receive tweets via text message, popular in emerging markets). Excluding SMS Fast Followers, Twitter’s user base grew 6 percent year over year to 305 million, however, was down on a sequential basis from 307 million in Q3 2015. Twitter is trying to save face by saying that its end of January data shows total monthly active users excluding SMS Fast Followers returned to Q3 levels.
“We saw a decline in monthly active usage in Q4, however, we’ve already seen January monthly actives bounce back to Q3 levels,” Twitter stated in its press release. “We’re confident that, with
disciplined execution, this growth trend will continue over time.”
For the last few quarters, SMS Fast Followers contributed to the majority of monthly active users Twitter added on a sequential basis. In Q4 2015, the growth there offset the decline for the remaining user base — this is exactly why Twitter started including SMS Fast Followers in its earnings.
Mobile monthly active users represented approximately 80 percent of the total figure, a number that has been flat since Q3 2014.