Twitter user growth rises amid Musk takeover

Twitter user growth rises amid Musk takeover

Twitter Inc reported stronger than expected user growth in what could be its last quarter as a public company after agreeing to a $44-billion buyout by billionaire Elon Musk. But overall revenue and advertising sales fell short of analyst estimates, due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Shares rose slightly in pre-market trading. The results lay out Musk’s challenges in improving the social media platform’s business to match its influence on news and culture. Twitter has long faced criticism for its sluggish pace of product launches. Musk has tweeted suggestions ranging from releasing a widely-demanded edit button to making the Twitter algorithm open-source. When Musk closes the deal, he will be overseeing a company that has had long-standing struggles with internal dysfunction, indecision and lack of accountability, Reuters previously reported according to eight current and former Twitter employees. Daily active users on Twitter rose to 229 million in the first quarter ended March 31, from 199 million a year earlier. The figure beat analyst expectations of 226.8 million daily active users. Facebook-owner Meta Platforms also reported a return to user growth on Wednesday, which helped propel social media stocks higher. Twitter said an internal error led to an overstatement of