Twitter Warns Of COVID-19 Impact On Q1 Results

(RTTNews) - Twitter Inc. (TWTR) said it now expects operating loss in the first-quarter, and quarterly revenue to be down slightly on a year-over-year basis, citing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Twitter had a strong start to the year before the effects of COVID-19 began spreading more broadly...... it has impacted Twitter's advertising revenue globally more significantly in the last few weeks," said Ned Segal, Twitter's Chief Financial Officer.

While announcing the fourth-quarter results, Twitter had expected operating income to be between break even and $30 million and total revenue of $825 million - $885 million for the first-quarter.

The social media giant today said it withdrew its prior operating income and revenue guidance for the first quarter of 2020, due to the growing impact of the COVID-19 on the global operating and economic environment and their effect on advertiser demand.

The company also withdrew its full year outlook for expenses, stock-based compensation, headcount, and capital expenditures.

Twitter noted that in the first quarter, global conversation about COVID-19 as well as ongoing product improvements were driving strength in total monetizable daily active users (mDAU). The quarter-to-date average total mDAU reached about 164 million, up 23% from 134 million in the first-quarter of 2019 and up 8% from 152 million in the fourth-quarter of 2019.

Twitter expects to release financial results for the first quarter on April 30, 2020.