Twitter sees record increase in users amid COVID-19 pandemic

Twitter’s user base has increased by 34 percent year-over-year to 186 million amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The social media giant released its second-quarter figures on July 23rd, which show that it’s seeing a record surge in users. This isn’t surprising, especially since people around the world were looking for more things to do online while being stuck at home due to the pandemic.

However, although the pandemic can be attributed to an increase in users, it also contributed to a slowed economy and companies slashing their advertising budgets. This is significant for Twitter because it is reliant on ad money.

Twitter’s revenue decreased 19 percent year-over-year to $683 million USD ($916 million CAD). The social media giant faced a loss of $124 million USD (about $166 million CAD). These figures show that Twitter may be facing a tough time until things go back to some sort of normal.

It’s important to note that the pandemic and its impact aren’t the only things affecting Twitter, as the company faced a major breach recently where hackers got control of several high-profile users’ accounts including Barack Obama, Elon Musk and Bill Gates.

This breach may cause some to rethink their usage of the service, especially high-profile individuals. However, Twitter is trying to add some reassurance by disclosing that it has deleted 15,00 misleading tweets and challenged 4.5 million accounts.

Source: Twitter