Can Data Lie? Social Media Titans’ Super-Speed Recovery and the Pervasive Disputes (Ⅰ)

Concerning the number of users, as an established social media, Twitter is not in the same magnitude as Facebook. The third quarter saw a growth of 35 million in Twitter’s number of users, reaching 187 million, slightly lower than the market expectation. However, Twitter’s revenue was $936 million, up 13.59% year-on-year, of which advertising revenue reached 880 million, up 15% year-on-year.

What is more noteworthy is that Twitter’s Q2 net profit was US$1.228 billion, and enjoyed a turnaround in the third quarter, making a profit of US$02.9 million, which largely benefited from the booming advertising industry.

Snapchat, which has a younger and more vertical user group, had a revenue of US$678 million, a year-on-year increase of 52% and up by 49% compared with Q2 revenue. The number of daily active users reached 249 million, an increase of 18% over the same period last year, exceeding market expectations. In terms of user retention, the total daily video viewing time of Snapchat users increased by more than 50% year-on-year. The increase in user retention serves as an important support for Q3 revenue growth. Thanks to the excellent data performance, Snapchat’s shares surged 24% after its earnings release on October 20.

Due to the impact of the epidemic, many companies made a drastic cut in the advertising budget in the first half of 2020. Nevertheless, as the epidemic tended to get better and work resumption began, the advertising demand rebounded in the third quarter and the advertising industry gradually recovered. At the same time, owing to the U.S. election, the demand for advertising by major agencies increased. Therefore, the advertising business of Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat all recovered after experiencing a decline in the first two quarters. It is understood that in the conference call, Facebook even made an optimistic forecast that its Q4 revenue would achieve further growth.

In any case, the three giants have delivered an earnings report that satisfied both themselves and the stock market.

Though the three social media reported a good performance, their disputes have lodged themselves in the public mind.

With a significant growth in the revenue and user activity, the “three titans” showed a prosperous scene. However, their images in users’ minds cannot be quickly reversed as the performance. The past and ongoing disputes are still deeply rooted in the public mind.