With just a single tweet, U.S. President Donald Trump is able to make headlines, move markets, and even ignite new feuds. Despite Twitter being Trump's platform of choice during his campaign, and now in the White House, there has been no noticeable "Trump effect" when it comes to Twitter's ability to generate revenue.
Twitter Continues To Increase In Revenues
According to NBCNews, Twitter posted its revenue of $717 million for the fourth quarter of 2016, which is up 1 percent year-over-year. The social media platform reported 319 million monthly active users, which is up 4 percent from the same period in 2015.
Probably the most perplexing, Twitter had more people on the site, with opinions and time spent on Twitter increasing by double digits in the 4th quarter on a year-over-year basis, according to the company. While it's very much hard to say what that can be attributed to, with a recently-concluded election still hot due to its surprising results, it's certainly feasible that some of those additional views are courtesy of Donald Trump's voracious tweeting.
Trump's Influence On Twitter's Rise
"I think whatever your political views are, it's pretty clear that Donald Trump is extremely divisive, and this isn't really any positive for advertisers," Richard Kramer, managing partner at Arete Research, said in a recent interview.
Chief investment officer at Tigress Financial Partners, Ivan Feinseth, told NBC News that even though Trump has managed to turn this company beyond a household name," advertisers feel that they are getting more bang for their buck at Facebook and Google
Is Twitter Better Off Without Trump?
According to TheGuardian, while it could be a ditch effort, could dumping Trump be good for Twitter's business? Unless he makes violation on the terms of service, Feinseth doesn't think so.
"If you're Twitter, that would certainly be like sticking a gun to your head," he said. "Twitter's real issue is that a lot of Trump's tweets are being retweeted, and people don't have to join."
