Revenues at Dublin Twitter division pass €1bn
REVENUES at Twitter’s Dublin base last year soared by 42pc to more than €1bn – or €2.75m a day.
The social media giant has been based in Ireland since 2011, and new accounts show Twitter International Company recorded a pre-tax loss of €2.4m in spite of the surge in revenues. It recorded an operating profit of €18.99m.
However, the firm sustained the pre-tax loss after recording a €22.5m impairment charge connected to the poor performance of a subsidiary.
Numbers employed at the Dublin unit last year declined by two to 173, as staff costs increased to €20m from €19.9m.
The company’s corporate tax bill totalled €5.9m last year, resulting in a post-tax loss of €8.4m.
The revenues enjoyed by the Dublin unit represented 36pc of Twitter’s global revenues of $3.042bn (€2.78bn) last year.
The volume of revenue that the business generates from its Irish users is not disclosed.
Singer Niall Horan has the highest number of followers of any Irish person, at 39.4 million.
The Twitter business here generates its revenues by having in place an arm’s length operating licence agreement with the group company, to develop a real-time information service for users and advertisers in all countries worldwide, apart from the Americas.
The directors stated that the company had performed in line with expectations.
The company generates substantially all of its advertising revenues through the sale of promoted products, tweets, accounts and trends.
Pay to directors increased to €1.47m from €258,000, made up of €541,000 in emoluments and €933,000 in gains on exercise of restricted stock units.
Shareholder funds at the firm at the end of last year totalled €256.18m, which included €14.3m in accumulated profits.