Twitter Announces First Profits

 

The social media site Twitter has announced its first profit since the founding of the company in 2005. The last quarter of 2017 saw the company making $ 91 million in profits. After the announcement, Twitter shares rose more than 20%.

Twitter made the profits from an increase in ad sales and from expansion outside the US.  Overall revenue has been increasing constantly and is now at $ 731 million, due to a better targeting of ads. While revenue in the US fell, it increased strongly in Japan and other countries.

Currently, Twitter is reported to have over 330 million active users. It has been an important media outlet for celebrities and politicians, especially in the United States, for a long time. However, surprisingly, up to now, the company has failed to make any profits. Business experts have criticized Twitter for failing to grow over the longer term and step out of the shadows of its bigger brother, Facebook.

 

 

The company has announced its plans for 2018.  It wants to improve the quality of information and tackle security issues, for example, fake accounts and spam. As many as 15% of all accounts on Twitter are said to be controlled by bots.

 

 

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Words

  • account  = agreement you have with an organisation so that you can use its services or website
  • ad = advertisement = pictures, text or a short film that persuades people to buy a product
  • announce = to say in public, officially
  • bot = computer programme  that can control information on a website
  • celebrity = famous person
  • constantly = slowly, but all the time
  • currently = at the moment
  • due to = because of
  • especially = above all
  • expansion = when something increases in size
  • fail = here: not succeed in doing something
  • fake = not a real person
  • founding = when the company started
  • increase = grow, become larger
  • longer term = over a longer period of time
  • outlet = here: organization through which information is presented
  • overall = total; altogether
  • politician = person who works in the government, parliament or a political party
  • profit = the money you for selling things or doing business after  your costs  have been paid for
  • reported = it is said that ...
  • revenue = money that a company gets in a certain time for selling products and services
  • rise - rose = to go up
  • security issues = problems in which the website is attacked by criminals and hackers
  • shares = part of a company that you can buy
  • spam = message that is sent to many different people by email or the Internet, usually as a way of advertising something
  • tackle = manage ; fight against
  • target = here: people who are chosen for getting ads