An online social networking service Twitter is struggling with the slowdown of the growth apparently due to its obsession with the short message, according to market watchers.
Twitter saw a net loss of $162 million in the first quarter of this year. In the mobile advertising market, it merely accounted for 3.6 percent way behind its rivals Google 36.9 percent and Facebook 18.5 percent. Newly emerging companies Instagram already beat out Twitter with its monthly active users of 300 million and a video messaging application Snapchat is fast following its 200 million monthly active users.
Faced with the struggle, its former chief Dick Costolo, who led the growth of the company, resigned last week. Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of the company, is now heading Twitter temporally but he is currently opposed by its largest shareholder Al Waleed Bin Talal, a Saudi business magnate.
The biggest reason behind the slow growth of Twitter is its obsession with the short message, by not correctly catching the changing trend of social media, according to some analysts. In the early mobile generation, Twitter’s short message limiting to 140 words was the best method to fast spread the message. However, as time goes by, people began to share their pictures and video beyond but the company continued to stick to its short messages, ignoring user needs. Twitter canceled its 140 words limitation in the direct message only after its former chief Dick Costolo resigned. But, it still uses the 140 words in tweet.
It adopted video service last August but it wasn’t for users but for advertising. It belatedly bought Periscope this March to provide real-time video services. Analysts said the shift into mobile environment may give a lot of opportunities but companies may easily fall behind if they do not respond to the fast changing user needs.
“Twitter should improve its products. Its user-based growth is not stronger-than-expected and it has much room to improve in user experience,” Aaron Kessler, an analyst of the U.S. investment bank Raymond James said in an interview with CNBC.
“The next chief should focus on service in terms of user based and advertising revenue,” he added.
Twitter is now ramping up its efforts to start diverse businesses to get out of the struggling profits.
Twitter’s chief product officer Kevin Weil recently said, “Twitter will be completely innovating.”
Bloomberg recently reported that Twitter is set to launch a campaign to make the appeals of Twitter known to the public.
Twitter is also reviewing new business called “Project Lightning internally” distributing real-time contents. Though the detailed plan has not yet been revealed it reflects its willingness to shift to its text-based platform to video-base. Earlier, Twitter adopted video autoplay which allows video and moving images are automatically played without users’ click.
While users watch video automatically played without sound within timeline, they can click any video interested in and then the video are enlarged with sound. The new service will be adopted first into Apple’s iOS version and then soon into Android on mobile environment.
Twitter is also expected to adopt news selection and editing service following its rival Facebook. According to multiple media outlets including The Verge, Twitter set to adopt its news editing service called “Project Lightening.”
So far, users can see newsfeed of people they followed but in the future they can follow accidents and issues they are interested in.
Users will be able to see breaking news gathered in the newsfeed home. Along with articles, they will see photos, video and Periscope. Twitter’s lightening service will be available on both websites and mobile apps and users do not have to log in to see the news service.
