Twitter Taps Swidler To Head Video Efforts

Hoping to put more of a media spin on its live video efforts, Twitter is bringing on former Bloomberg executive Todd Swidler to spearhead the business.

“Excited to announce [Todd] is joining Twitter as our new global head of live business,” Anthony Noto, Twitter’s current chief operating officer and chief technology officer, tweeted on Monday.  

Most recently, Swidler served as CEO of eSports and entertainment company ESC Games.

Previously, Swidler is credited with launching Bloomberg Media’s digital video news unit and growing its international business as global head of content partnerships.

Twitter recently reported strong user growth during the first quarter of 2017. The social giant said it added about 9 million new users -- making it the biggest quarterly bump in years.

“We’re really proud to report accelerating growth and daily active usage … up 14%, year-over-year,” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey told investors on an earnings call, last month.

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Year-over-year, average monthly active users jumped 6% from 319 million to 328 million, during the first quarter. Among other factors, Dorsey attributed the rebound to better policing of trolls, bullies and other bad actors.

“We are seeing a significant decrease in the number of people experiencing abuse on Twitter,” Dorsey said. Twitter is also doing a better job of rolling out new products and meeting the needs of average users, he added.

For the first quarter, Twitter reported revenue of $548 million -- down 8% year-over-year. Still, analysts were pleasantly surprised by Twitter’s user growth.

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