Twitter has posted quarterly revenues of more than $1bn for the first time. It reported revenues of $1.01bn for Q4 2019 earlier today, beating analysts’ estimates of $997n. Net income for the quarter came in at $119m, while monetiseable daily active users (mDAUs) – Twitter’s own metric – were up 21 per cent at 152m. Total revenues for 2019 were $3.46bn, a 14 per cent year-on-year increase.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said 2019 was a great year for Twitter. “Our work to increase relevance and ease of use delivered 21 per cent mDAU growth in Q4, with more than half of the 26m mDAU added in 2019 directly driven by product improvements,” Dorsey said. “Entering 2020, we are building on our momentum – learning faster, prioritizing better, shipping more and hiring remarkable talent. All of which put us in a stronger position as we address the challenges and opportunities ahead.”

“We reached a new milestone in Q4 with quarterly revenue in excess of $1 billion, reflecting steady progress on revenue product and solid performance across most major geographies, with particular strength in US advertising,” said Twitter CFO, Ned Segal. “We continue to see tremendous opportunity to get the whole world to use Twitter and provide a more personalized experience across both organic and promoted content, delivering increasing value for both consumers and advertisers.”

Socialbakers CEO Yuval Ben-Itzhak said the results showed that Twitter’s “noble efforts” to stop hate speech and tackle digital pollution have started paying dividends.

“The platform’s improved overall health, coupled with its investment in new, engaging ad formats and easy-to-search Topics have helped it not only grow revenue, but also expand its monetisable user base by 21 per cent year-on-year,” he said. “2020 has the potential to be a good year for Twitter. It’s still the platform on which real-time news updates are shared first. With its focus on event driven live and on-demand video, Twitter remains a powerful platform for media publishers overall.

“Despite not being able to capitalise on political ad spend, Twitter is where the conversation happens around politics and world events. With the US presidential elections and the Olympic Games coming up in 2020, Twitter is well positioned to build on its user growth and engagement this year.”

And Aaron Goldman, CMO, at marketing technology company 4C Insights, said the results showed that Twitter has become a staple of the brand marketing playbook.

“In Q4 2019 we saw advertisers invest heavily in campaigns on Twitter and total spend increased more than 70 per cent year-on-year,” said Goldman. “The festive season played its part, where brands in the retail, telecommunications, and entertainment sector led the pack.

“With high hopes across the UK for the England football team in the Euros and the Summer Olympics looming, Twitter will remain top of mind for consumers and brands alike. And unlike the open web, which relies on banners and cookies, Twitter is a closed ecosystem with native ad formats and opt-in consent. The combination of personalization and privacy presents a powerful palette for brands to connect with engaged audiences and drive performance.”

From an analyst’s perspective, eMarketer analyst Nazmul Islam said the results show that advertisers are confident in the platform’s reach despite some of the product issues earlier in the year.

“A reason for the confidence is probably continued growth of monetizable daily active users, which spiked up again in Q4,” said Islam. “Their moves to ban political ads and new manipulated media policy, which identifies fabricated/altered media, should resonate positively with users and continue the growth in engagement in the next quarter.”