Twitter has now reported its Q1 2020 earnings. The company was able to beat analyst expectations for revenue, but unlike the year-ago quarter, it posted a net loss.
 
The company’s monetizable daily active users (mDAUs) increased from 134 million in Q1 2019 to 166 million, an increase of 24 percent. The company says this is the highest number of mDAUs it has ever added to its platform.
 
The uptick in usage can be attributed to the coronavirus, as people flock online to stay updated and connected.
 
The usage spike helped the company earn revenue of $808 million, a 3 percent year over year growth. Analysts, on the other hand, had forecasted revenue of $773 million.
 
The microblogging website missed profit estimates and reported a net loss of $8.4 million. This has been chalked down to an 18 percent bump in costs and expenses.
 
As CFO Ned Segal notes, the 3 percent year over year revenue growth is impressive at a time when businesses around the world are getting hit hard because of COVID-19. In mid-March, the company had said that even though it has witnessed a boost in active users, advertising revenue has taken a hit because of the coronavirus. 

Twitter is reallocating resources to revenue products and freezing hiring

 
Although the increase in mDUA is remarkable and the company witnessed double-digit growth in its top 10 markets during Q1 2020, it has said that towards the end of March, the number of daily active users began to stabilize, as people settled into new routines. So, while revenue grew from January through the beginning of March, it did start declining thereafter.
 
The company says that the dip was particularly significant in the US. Asia, on the other hand, seems to be showing signs of recovery, as coronavirus related restrictions are gradually being eased.
 
For now, the plan is to prioritize revenue products and curtail expense growth. The company also cautions that plans to build a new data center will probably be delayed because of supply-side constraints.