Twitter overstated the number of daily users on its service for three years in a row, counting as many as 1.9 million users each quarter. The bug was caused by Twitter inadvertently counting multiple accounts as active when they were all linked to a single user, even if they weren’t all in use. These incorrect usage numbers were given for the first quarter of 2019 through the fourth quarter of 2021.
This is, in a way, not the first time Twitter has done this. In 2017, Twitter what’s more realized it had been exaggerating its user figures by around 1 million to 2 million users for three years. The repeated error was revealed today on Twitter earnings release for the first quarter of 2022.
The updated numbers don’t exactly change the rules of the game: Twitter now has 229 million daily users, which is still over 10 million, even from last quarter’s inflated number. But they are one last embarrassing slip for Twitter, as the company disputes a deal to make it private, at which point it will no longer have to share these figures publicly.
Twitter reported an operating loss of $128 million on revenue of $1.2 billion, both in line with its own guidance for the quarter. Revenue rose 16 percent year over year, with Twitter citing “headwinds associated with the war in Ukraine.”
Monday, Twitter accepted a purchase offer from Elon Musk, agreeing to give him control of the company for $44 billion. The deal is expected to close later this year.
Due to the pending sale, Twitter says it will stop providing guidance on its performance and is “retiring all previously provided goals and insights.”
Musk has given vague statements about how Twitter will change, promising to “improve[e] the product with new features”, make your algorithms open source, crack down on spam bots, and verify all users. It has also ceaselessly insisted on turning it into a platform for freedom of expressionwhich has raised concerns about how it will oversee moderation on the platform.
In particular, Musk has said that buying Twitter “it’s not a way to make money.” The company has never been a big moneymaker, and Musk has repeatedly stressed that he wants to make changes to Twitter so it can remain a “de facto town square.”
Let’s make Twitter as fun as possible!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 28, 2022
Some Twitter employees publicly concern expressed about Musk’s potential acquisition ahead of the deal, and Musk has only managed to validate his fears in recent days as he continues to tweet critically about the company’s decisions. In particular, his criticism of Twitter political leader Vijaya Gadde has led to bullying from other users of the site.
Twitter was supposed to discuss today’s earnings release in a call with investors, but canceled the event “in light of the pending transaction.” If the deal goes through, today’s figures would be one of the company’s last public earnings releases.