Twitter is now claiming it is the largest "information network" in the world, according to CEO Dick Costolo. In making such bold claims, Costolo also announced the company had seen a massive user surge that led to better-than-expected earnings for the second quarter.
The CEO's words could, according to analysts, signal a shift in public relations for the San Francisco-based company that has received some backlash over its slowness in publishing company demographics over its employees diversity, or lack thereof.
Costolo and other top Twitter officials appear to be pushing the line between social network, which the microblogging site was founded upon, and becoming a true media company, which Facebook has also done in recent years through acquisitions and new technology endeavors.
The company reported that it saw an increase of 16 million users over the three-month period, moving Twitter's active user base to 271 million, which helped it post $312 million in revenue for the quarter. That's a 124 percent increase from the same period a year ago. This figure is much higher than the expected $284 million the company had predicted and what analysts had expected.
"Our strong financial and operating results for the second quarter show the continued momentum of our business," says Costolo.
"We remain focused on driving increased user growth and engagement, and by developing new product experiences, like the one we built around the World Cup, we believe we can extend Twitter's appeal to an even broader audience."
Twitter also said that over three-quarters of its users are making tweets from their mobile devices. While the company lags far behind Facebook's 1.3 billion users, the increase in the quarter should be a positive for the company as it continues to develop and grow.
The earnings report comes on the heels of efforts, finally successful, to get Twitter to publicly release information pertaining to its demographics and employee diversity. Leading that charge had been Rev. Jesse Jackson, who as Tech Times previously reported, has been urging tech companies like Twitter to release their company demographics in order to gauge how inclusive companies are in Silicon Valley.
"We come not to disrupt but to fulfill the promise of social media," Jackson said in an interview earlier this month before Twitter released the information, likely after pressure from Jackson and his partner organizations.
