BY ALEX WEPRIN | HollywoodReporter.Com

Troy Warren for CNT

The social media company reported revenue of $1.19 billion in the quarter (up 74 percent year over year), led by a reinvigorated advertising business. But its U.S. user base declined slightly.

Twitter on Thursday reported that it now had more than 206 million monetizable daily active users, and revealed its Q2 earnings, which easily topped Wall Street expectations.

Twitter reported revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter (up 74 percent year over year), beating the $1.07 billion expectation, and earnings per share of $0.20, versus an expectation of $0.07. The company had GAAP operating income of $30 million, compared to a year earlier when it lost $274 million amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Twitter stock was up more than 6 percent in after-hours trading after the earnings report was released.

The company’s advertising business led its rebound, with ad revenue up 87 percent year over year to $1.05 billion. In addition to more efficient tracking and targeting capabilities, Twitter’s ad business was bolstered by video, including a 15-second bidding unit. The U.S. accounted for about half of all advertising revenue. Going forward, CFO Ned Segal said the company is piloting an ad unit that will let users play a game inside of the ad, among other options.

He also said that ad buys from “streamers” were up 40 percent from Q1.

The company has also rolled out a number of new formats, including the audio-focused Twitter Spaces, and a subscription offering in Canada and Australia, Twitter Blue. Twitter will add additional features, geographic expansion, and other offerings to Twitter Blue in the coming months.

While Twitter grew its base of active users overall, its active user base in the U.S. actually fell by 1 million in the quarter.

“Our performance this year is relatively consistent with this historical range, despite an atypical backdrop, which includes lighter news cycles in the US as well as the beginning of reopening across many communities, where consumer behavior likely hasn’t normalized,” the company said. “Longer-term, we remain confident in our ability to accelerate mDAU growth in both the U.S. and international markets.”

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey also elaborated on his view that Bitcoin is “hugely important to Twitter and Twitter shareholders,” saying that he is “focusing on the use case of the internet having a native currency, and bitcoin is the best candidate for that role. If the Internet has a native currency, a global currency, we are able to move so much faster.”

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