Twitter is profitable in 1Q

But Wall Street remains unimpressed as company warns of tougher days ahead

NEW YORK — Twitter has remained largely outside of the crosshairs of Congress over the privacy issues that have tripped up Facebook, but it continues to face its own, unique challenges.

The company is wrestling with abuse on its own platform as well as a potential accounting for disinformation campaigns that led up to and followed the 2016 presidential election, though Twitter suspended the accounts of many well-known white nationalists in December.

During a call with analysts Wednesday to discuss first-quarter earnings, CEO Jack Dorsey sought to differentiate Twitter from its social media peers. Twitter, he said, is public, “so all of our data is out in the public, out in the open.”

Unlike Google and Facebook, however, Twitter has struggled with profitability. The company on Wednesday posted only its second profitable quarter and despite some strong growth overseas, many on Wall Street remain jittery about its prospects. Despite a surprisingly robust quarter, shares tumbled more than six per cent at the opening bell after the company warned of tougher performance comparisons moving forward.

Some of the challenges in surpassing what turned out to be a very impressive finish last year have already begun to emerge, at least to some investors. Daily active users increased 10 per cent, down from 12 per cent growth in the fourth quarter, and 14 per cent growth a year ago.

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said the diminished growth spooked investors. Still, Pachter believes daily user numbers are better than the tepid two per cent monthly active user growth, and as those two begin to converge, a more promising picture will emerge for Twitter.

For the three months ended March 31, Twitter Inc. earned US$61 million, or 8 cents per share. A year earlier it lost $61.6 million, or 9 cents per share.