Twitter

Twitter miscounted daily users per quarter by up to almost two million for three straight years

Allison McDaniel | Apr 28 2022 - 8:17 am PT

Twitter has been overcounting an additional 1.9 million daily users each quarter on its platform – the error comes from counting multiple accounts as active when they were all tied to one user. Happening for three straight years, the numbers were incorrect from Q1 2019 through Q4 2021.

According to The Verge, this is not the first time Twitter has incorrectly up-counted its user base. Back in 2017, the social media giant counted an additional one to two million users for another three years. The repeat mishap became known today in Twitter’s earnings release for Q1 2022.

Regardless of the miscount, average daily user totals are up by about 10 million from last quarter. The earnings release shows that the platform had about 229 million daily users in the first quarter of 2022.

Twitter has been in the news a lot lately due to the Elon Musk acquisition and a slew of new features gradually joining the platform. With the acquisition mentioned in the earnings release, the company states its operational and financial highlights. The document looks a bit different than previous quarters.

Given the pending acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk, we will not be providing any forward looking guidance, and are withdrawing all previously provided goals and outlook.

Twitter was supposed to discuss these earnings on a conference call today. However, the call is canceled “in light of the proposed transaction”.

In light of the proposed transaction with Mr. Musk, as is customary during the pendency of an acquisition, Twitter will not be hosting a conference call, issuing a shareholder letter, or providing financial guidance in conjunction with its first quarter 2022 earnings release. For further detail and discussion of our financial performance please refer to our upcoming quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2022.