Entertainment
Twitter’s user base shrinks, shares show a sharp fall
New York:Twitter shares open very low indicating a sharp fall in its online users . A decline in its monthly active users (MAUs) is considered as the basic reason behind this . This came into notice when the company announced its fourth quarter results on Wednesday.
The micro-blogging site reported 305 million(MAUs) for the fourth quarter, compared to 307 million in the third quarter that excluded SMS-only followers.
The almost-flat user growth led to its shares falling as much as 13 percent in extended trading, Tech Crunch reported, hitting another new low of around $13.75 before flattening out to 3 percent in extended trading.
“We saw a decline in monthly active usage in Q4, but we’ve already seen January monthly actives bounce back to Q3 levels. We’re confident that, with disciplined execution, this growth trend will continue over time,” the company said in its earning statement.
It reported earnings of 16 cents per share and revenue of $710 million. Twitter said it expects between $595 million and $610 million in revenue for the first quarter, compared to the estimates of $629 million.
Still, revenue was up 48 percent year-over-year despite stalled user growth, the report added.
“Positive impacts from our marketing initiatives which contributed meaningfully to MAU growth. However, these were more than offset by organic declines, partially due to fourth quarter seasonal trends.”
In the past year, the stock has fallen nearly 70 percent and investors are looking for long-term growth from Twitter.
“Not being able to add any new active users in the last quarter will disappoint some, particularly investors. Yet it did see active advertisers go up by almost 90 percent year-on-year,” said Sotirios Paroutis, associate professor with the Warwick Business School.
“Plus, historically, Q4 has been a slow quarter for Twitter. While in 2016 the US elections and the Olympics will be two big events that are expected to help push their active users up,” said Paroutis, who specialises in strategic management and specifically researches Twitter.
“Twitter has delivered a number of product innovations, but these need to be less confusing for core users and attractive enough for new users. The focus on ‘live’ and experiencing live events is a clear effort to explain Twitter to a wider audience.”
Twitter is planning to introduce an algorithmic timeline like Facebook in an attempt to bring tweets to more people across the globe. The timeline will reorder tweets based on what Twitter’s algorithm thinks people most want to see.
The home timeline will be rolled out to people across 23 countries, including India, who visit Twitter homepage on their mobile devices. The micro-blogging site has been looking for ways to elevate popular content for quite some time.
An algorithmic feed would be, to date, the boldest change so far under Jack Dorsey, who took the reins of Twitter as new CEO in October last year, analysts maintain.
Dorsey has made several moves, including cutting jobs and naming Google’s former chief business officer, Omid Kordestani, as Twitter’s executive chairman.
Under Dorsey, Twitter has released a news curation feature “Moments” and the company is reportedly working to extend Twitter’s identifying 140-character limit to 10,000.
Twitter is also set for a major overhaul under Dorsey to revive the company’s fortune with some of the high-profile executives putting in their papers.
Alex Roetter the company’s head of engineering and product chief Kevin Weil are departing along with Katie Stanton, the company’s high-profile head of media. This can be one of the main reason behind such a sudden fall .
Entertainment
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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