Twitter on Tuesday disclosed that more than 271 million users are active monthly as of the quarter ended June 30, up by 24 percent from the same period last year, though 23 million or 8.5 percent of these accounts use third-party apps to post updates regularly.
In a Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, the micro-blogging site revealed that these 23 million active users are actually bots that automatically pull in data from the network as well as publish content autonomously, with no “discernible user action involved.”
Twitter said that false or spam accounts accounting for around 5 percent of the monthly active user base. However, the network also noted it’s estimation of spam accounts may not be accurate and that the actual number can be higher than what is estimated.
The company, highlighting that it has “suspended a large number of accounts,” added that it is “continually seeking to improve” its ability to estimate the actual number of false or spam accounts and eliminate them from calculation of active user figures.
In the period of 3 months ended June 30, 2014, Twitter said that approximately 11 percent of all active users accessed the micro-blogging site solely through third-party applications. The company noted that only up to 8.5 percent active users may have contacted the Twitter servers automatically through third party applications, for regular updates without any user-initiated action.
Twitter reported a growth in timeline views by 15 percent to 173.2 billion, with advertising revenue per timeline view to be $1.60, representing a 100 percent increase from last year. The network also posted a 124 percent increase in the revenue to $312.2 million, compared to the same period last year, with nearly 81 percent of the advertising revenue generated from mobile devices.
