Twitter ups live video output

Twitter said it delivered more than 1,200 hours of live premium video in Q2, with video remaining its largest and fastest-growing ad format.

Announcing its second quarter results, Twitter said that the amount of live premium video delivered from existing and new content partners climbed from 900 hours in Q1 2017 and 600 hours in Q4 2016.

“Our content offering spanned 625 events reaching 55 million unique viewers, an increase of 22% from Q1 2017,” said the company in a letter to shareholders.

On top of this, the firm said it streamed 76 million hours of live user-generated video in Q2 via its Periscope service and made a number of product improvements, including virtual gifts called ‘Super Hearts’.

“Continued growth in video was offset by year-over-year declines in traditional Promoted Tweet and direct response ad formats,” said Twitter.

Overall, Twitter said that ad engagements increased 95% year-over-year, driven by a “continuing mix shift toward video ad impressions,” as well as higher clickthrough rates due to better targeting and ad relevance.

“We’re proud of our strong growth in video, which remained our largest and fastest growing ad format, and we received a positive response from advertisers around the live premium video content debuted at Twitter’s Digital Content NewFronts,” said Twitter COO, Anthony Noto.

“We remain focused on growing revenue by improving the performance and measurement of our revenue products, tapping into new channels of demand and continuing to grow our data licensing revenue.”

Twitter posted second quarter revenue of US$574 million, a decrease of 5% year-over-year. Quarterly GAAP net loss was US$116 million, compared to a loss of US$107 million in Q2 2016.