Unfortunately, the default position of the market is that Twitter will become the next Facebook which is why hopes and dreams get far ahead of what the reality can ever deliver.
— Richard Windsor, analyst at Edison Investment Research, says Twitter is looking less and less like a social network — and more and more like a broadcaster — but that it keeps getting compared to Facebook. Hence the sharp drop in shares after Monday s earnings report, even though the San Francisco company reported sales that were more than double that of the year-ago quarter. The number of Twitter users grew 13 million in the third quarter, to a total of 284 million, but not as much as the previous quarter s growth of 16 million users.
We mentioned last week that recently rolled out initiatives confirm Twitter is thinking beyond social. Fabric and Digits are tools that are meant to establish an app-development platform, part of what the company says will transform it to a mobile-services company. Twitter s moves are being compared to Google s expansion and evolution beyond search.
Twitter shares are down more than 9.5 percent to about $43.85 today.
Photo of Twitter logo by Laura A. Oda/Bay Area News Group
