Twitter’s Bet on Video Streaming Is Starting to Pay Off

Two years ago, even as its stock plummeted and takeover rumors swirled, Twitter was hatching a plan to become a force in live video. The company’s goal was to help users discover “what's happening now,“ according to Bloomberg. There were plenty of skeptics who said the battered company couldn’t possibly compete with deeper-pocketed rivals like Facebook.

Yet Twitter has carved out a niche in the noisy world of video content and now streams a range of programming, from “Game of Thrones“ recaps to National Football League highlights. It has attracted big advertisers, including Goldman Sachs and AT&T, that are buying video ads in the timeline or running brand campaigns next to live broadcasts. Twitter is still dwarfed by Facebook and struggling to grow beyond 330 million monthly active users, but it’s doing as good a job as anyone at figuring out live-streaming, a medium that has been stubbornly slow to take off in the U.S.

In the fourth quarter, the number of daily active users grew 12 percent, marking Twitter’s fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit year-over-year growth. The company also says video advertising is its biggest ad format and grew as a percentage of revenue in the same period. The stock has jumped more than 30 percent so far this year; when Twitter reports earnings next week analysts expect to see a continued surge in daily active users and accelerating sales growth as brands become more comfortable advertising on the platform.