Twitter Turns To Native Video To Enhance Engagement

Trying to solve its engagement problem, Twitter is planning to let users share what’s happening in their world through native video, and highlight -- or “surface” -- what it considers to be relevant tweets.

“We want Twitter to be nothing less than the very best way to keep up with your world, and the very best way to connect to your world,” Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said during the company’s analyst day presentation, on Wednesday.

Regarding the specific changes, Kevin Weil, vice president, product at Twitter, said in a blog post following the presentation: “You can expect to see this in the first half of next year."

“We’re experimenting with better ways to give you what you come to Twitter for: a snapshot of what’s happening,” Weil explained. “We can use information like who you follow and what you engage with to surface highlights of what you missed, and show those to you as soon as you log back in or come back to the app.”

Though encouraging, some analysts say the coming changes are not reason enough to change their perception of Twitter as a niche service.

“We continue to believe that Twitter’s core proposition has niche appeal among consumers, albeit a pretty large niche,” Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wieser wrote in a note to investors. “But it’s not one that will reach the ubiquity the company aspires towards.”

Replacing Daniel Graf, Weil was brought in to ramp up consumer product innovation at Twitter, just last month.

The management switch came just days after CEO Dick Costolo expressed his displeasure with the pace of product development at Twitter. While insisting that the company remains on the right track, Costolo told analysts that it is “more critical than ever that we increase the pace of [product and idea] execution.”

The comment came during an earnings call on which Twitter revealed user growth — and a fourth-quarter revenue forecast of $440 to $450 million — that fell short of analysts’ hopes.

In line with analysts’ expectations, Twitter said it saw revenue rise to $361 million in the third quarter — up 114% year-over-year. During the quarter, Twitter recorded 284 million average monthly active users (MAUs), which represented an increase of 23% year-over-year, but just 5% quarter-over-quarter.

Timeline views reached 181 billion during the quarter -- an increase of 14% year-over-year. Stateside, however, Timeline views per monthly active user actually fell from 793 to 774, quarter-over-quarter.

Next story loading loading..