Twitter Investor Day
A NOTE ABOUT METRICS
The numbers of active users, user engagement and timeline views presented in these presentations are based on internal company data. While these numbers are
based on what we believe to be reasonable estimates for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring usage and user
engagement across our large user base around the world. For example, there are a number of false or spam accounts in existence on our platform. We have
performed an internal review of a sample of accounts and estimated that false or spam accounts represented less than 5% of our MAUS. In making this determination,
we applied significant judgment, so our estimation of false or spam accounts may not accurately represent the actual number of such accounts, and the actual
number of false or spam accounts could be higher than we have estimated. We are continually seeking to improve our ability to estimate the total number of spam
accounts and eliminate them from the calculation of our active users. For example, we made an improvement in our spam detection capabilities in the second quarter
of 2013 and suspended a large number of accounts. Spam accounts that we have identified are not included in the active user numbers presented in our earnings
materials. We treat multiple accounts held by a single person or organization as multiple users for purposes of calculating our active users because we permit people
and organizations to have more than one account. Additionally, some accounts used by organizations are used by many people within the organization. As such, the
calculations of our active users may not accurately reflect the actual number of people or organizations using our platform. Our metrics are also affected by
applications that automatically contact our servers for regular updates with no user action involved, and this activity can cause our system to count the users
associated with such applications as active users on the day or days such contact occurs. In the three months ended September 30, 2014, approximately 11.5 percent
of active users solely used third-party applications to access Twitter. In the three months ended September 30, 2014, approximately 8.5 percent of users used third
party applications that may have automatically contacted our servers for regular updates without any discernible additional user-initiated action. As such, the
calculations of MAUs presented in our earnings materials may be affected as a result of automated activity.
In addition, our data regarding user geographic location for purposes of reporting the geographic location of our MAUS is based on the IP address associated with
the account when a user initially registered the account on Twitter. The IP address may not always accurately reflect a user's actual location at the time such user
engaged with our platform.
We present and discuss timeline views, but have estimated a small percentage of the timeline views in the three months ended September 30, 2013 to account for
certain timeline views that were logged incorrectly during the quarter as a result of a product update. We believe these estimates to be reasonable, but actual
numbers could differ from our estimates. Further, timeline views in 2012 exclude an immaterial number of timeline views for our mobile applications, certain of which
were not fully tracked until June 2012.
We present and discuss the size of our audience based on both internal metrics and data from Google Analytics, which measures unique visitors to our properties.
We regularly review and may adjust our processes for calculating our internal metrics to improve their accuracy. Our measures of user growth and user engagement
may differ from estimates published by third parties or from similarly-titled metrics of our competitors due to differences in methodology.View entire presentation