Twitter

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Sona Kim

By Sona Kim

Twitter Logo [1]

1355 Market Street
Suite 900
San Francisco, CA 94103

Executives:

Dick Costolo – CEO [2]

Ali Rowghani – COO [3]

Mike Gupta – CFO [4]

Adam Bain – President of Global Revenue [5]

Company Profile

Twitter is a micro blogging and social networking platform where users can read and send tweets limited to 140 characters. It is currently the tenth most popular website worldwide and boasted 232 million users in this quarter alone. Over 500 million Tweets are sent everyday and 76% of active users are on mobile. [6] Looking at a US demographic, 16% of US adults use Twitter and one in ten adults get their news from Twitter. [7]

Twitter Demographics [19]

History

Twitter was initially part of a podcasting firm called Odeo and became its own company in 2007. The company expanded its user base immensely during the 2007 SXSW Conference after successfully placing two plasma screens that streamed Twitter messages. [8] In 2010, Twitter announced that they would offer paid advertising, or “promoted tweets” which has become a major revenue stream for the company.

Sponsored Ad Example [20]

Financial Snapshot

According to newly filed financial documents, Twitter has a net loss $133.8 million this year compared to a $70.7 million loss in 2012. However, their advertising profits are quickly rising as the company collected $168.6 million in third quarter, for a total of $422 million in total revenue. [9] Twitter’s research and development costs are also growing immensely as the company believes these investments will turn into profit. R&D costs have increased a whopping 153% from last year alone.

Advertisements accounted for 85% of revenue in 2012 and this has increased to 89% in 2013. Another form of revenue for the company is data licensing, which allows clients to access user tweets and data. Twitter has made $47.3 million from selling user data in 2013, which is a 36.3% increase from last year. [10]

Nielsen TV Ratings

Twitter Social TV Stats [21]

In October 2013, Nielsen and Twitter announced a metrics system to gauge which television shows are popular. Initial research showed that for every 1,000 tweets, 50,000 people would see those tweets. There has also been a marked increase of live conversations about television on Twitter. Last quarter alone, 19 million people wrote over 260 million Tweets about live TV, which marked a 38% increase. According to an executive at Universal, “the potential value of Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings is that is provides a pathway for an advertiser to turn audience energy into brand momentum”. [11]

Vine

Vine is a video sharing mobile platform acquired by Twitter in 2012. The company launched the application in the first quarter of this year and Vine quickly became the top video sharing application. It is the fastest growing app in 2013 with a 403% growth rate. [12]

Vine Popularity [22]

More notably, Dunkin Donuts aired the first Vine as a TV commercial in September during a preseason NFL game. This marks the first wave of integrative social media and television and will surely be a growth sector for Vine as other brands have begun to launch Vine campaigns, such as Nissan. [13]

Twitter and the News

One of the reasons for Twitter’s success is their ability to facilitate real time information, especially with breaking news. As a result, Twitter recently rolled out push notifications in November 2013 for breaking news. However, a random group of Twitter users received a push notification when they neither followed the @BreakingNews account or signed up for push notifications. [14]

Breaking News Push Notification [23]

Twitter has also expanded an account specifically for breaking news called @EventParrot, which is a new service that allows for personalized notifications. This is a very recent feature but it shows that Twitter is recognizing their strength as an immediate news outlet.

Spammers and Hackers

As an online platform, Twitter faces problems from spammers and hackers. The company estimates that over 11 million accounts are spam accounts. They announced in their initial filing that they were aware that a rise in users will also result in more spam accounts and that they will continue to terminate spam accounts as they find them. This year alone, there have been several prolific incidents of cyber hacking. Earlier this year, the company announced that over a quarter of a million users’ information may have been compromised. In another disturbing incident, the Syrian Electronic Army briefly gained control of one of Twitter’s domains. [15]

Competitors

Twitter’s major competitors include other technology giants such as Facebook and LinkedIn. While Twitter may have millions of other users, Facebook has over times more. Twitter gains almost $3 in revenue per user but this pales in comparison to LinkedIn’s $8. However, the market value of each Twitter user is $134.47. [16]

Average Revenue from Each User (USD$) [24]

IPO – $TWTR

Top 10 Internet IPOs [25]

The major story for Twitter this quarter is their initial public offering. Goldman Sachs was announced as the lead underwriter on the deal and the company raised $1.8 billion from the IPO. As a result of the 70 million shares that Twitter issued, the company’s market value grew to a little over $13 billion. Twitter stock opened at $26 and rose rapidly on its first trading day and has settled to a low $40 range currently. [17] Twitter’s IPO marks the second largest Internet IPO after Facebook. The company opted to file its IPO on the NYSE, as NASDAQ is heavier with technology companies and is trading under the ticker name TWTR. Currently, analysts anticipate that Twitter will become profitable by 2015 as advertising revenue streams increase. [18] There has been some worry that Twitter is not profitable as it has posted net losses for the past three years. However, investors believe that Twitter has opted to go public earlier in its growth curve and has more opportunity to become profitable in the coming years.

Twitter’s Future

Expect Twitter Revenues [26]

As Twitter begins its first foray as a public company, there are many doubts that Twitter is just a fad and that their IPO will be overhyped and overvalued just like Facebook’s. However, based on growth expectations and expansions into news, Nielsen ratings and popular applications such as Vine, Twitter will surely be profitable by 2015. As social media becomes more measurable, Twitter stands to bring in higher revenue streams as advertisers begin to recognize the power of this social media platform.

Sources:

1. Twitter Logo Picture – http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=17977&d=1347540360

2-5. Executive Profiles and Pictures – https://about.twitter.com/company/leadership

6. Twitter User Stats – https://about.twitter.com/company

7. Twitter News User Stats – http://www.journalism.org/2013/11/04/twitter-news-consumers-young-mobile-and-educated/

8. Twitter History – http://jobsearchtech.about.com/od/companyprofiles/p/Twitter-Company-Profile.htm

9. Twitter Financial Costs – http://money.cnn.com/2013/11/06/technology/social/twitter-ipo-price/

10. Twitter Spending Costs – http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/15/twitter-doubles-its-q3-revenue-but-its-aggregate-2013-loss-has-widened-to-133-8m/

11. Nielsen and Twitter Ratings – http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/press-room/2013/nielsen-launches-nielsen-twitter-tv-ratings.html

12. Vine Growth – http://www.b2bmarketing.net/news/archive/mobile-new-vine-named-fasting-growing-app-2013

13. Dunkin Vine Campaign – http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/dunkin-donuts-launching-first-tv-ad-made-entirely-vine-152267

14. Twitter Push Notifications – http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/twitter-tests-waters-breaking-news-push-notifications/

15. Twitter Hacks – http://www.marketwatch.com/story/10-things-twitter-wont-tell-you-2013-10-25?pagenumber=8

16. Twitter Competitors – http://www.trefis.com/stock/twtr/articles/215695/how-does-twitter-stack-up-against-facebook-and-linkedin/2013-11-18?from=filmstrip%3Atop

17. Twitter IPO Factsheet – http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/interesting-numbers-twitters-ipo-20824494

18. Twitter IPO Info – http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-06/twitter-raises-1-82-billion-pricing-ipo-above-offering-range.html

19. Twitter News Demographics- http://www.journalism.org/2013/11/04/twitter-news-consumers-young-mobile-and-educated/

20. Sponsored Ad Image – http://www.rebelcmc.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/4573997468_222cebf8ff.jpg

21. Twitter Social TV Image- http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/files/2012/12/twitter-social-tv.png

22. Vine Popularity Image – http://www.b2bmarketing.net/news/archive/mobile-new-vine-named-fasting-growing-app-2013

23. Breaking News Push Notification Push – http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/twitter-tests-waters-breaking-news-push-notifications/

24. Competitor Revenue per Customer Graph – http://www.trefis.com/stock/twtr/articles/215695/how-does-twitter-stack-up-against-facebook-and-linkedin/2013-11-18?from=filmstrip%3Atop

25. Top Internet IPO Image – http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/MWimages/MW-BO775_top_ip_MG_20131107095949.jpg

26. Twitter Expected Revenue Graph – http://www.trefis.com/stock/izea/articles/215754/twitters-long-hard-path-to-profitability/2013-11-19?from=artPopin

Netflix

Posted on November 12, 2013 by Will Roth

By Will Roth

Netflix logo – courtesy digitaltrends.com

Corporate Headquarters

100 Winchester Circle, Los Gatos, CA 95032

(408) 540-3700

www.netflix.com

History

Netflix was founded in 1997 by software executives Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph. Two years later, the company offered its subscription service of unlimited DVD rentals for a monthly fee. Since its inception, Netflix has grown exponentially in terms of consumer popularity and financial revenue. Today, over 40 million subscribers consume roughly 1 billion hours of content per month through the company. [1]

Key Executive

Reed Hastings Courtesy of Netflix

Reed Hastings co-founded Netflix in 1997 and has served as its Chairman, CEO, and President since. Prior to this, he founded Pure Software, which he then sold to Rational Software. Following a stint in the Peace Corps during college wherein he taught high school math in Swaziland, he has served as the president of the California State Board of Education and remains a member of the California Teachers’ Association. [2] [3]

Financials

Netflix made its initial public offering on May 22, 2002 with 5,500,000 shares at $15.00 each. [4] As of November 15, 2013 one share sat at $349.78. The company’s all-time high was $389.16. However, it hasn’t always been a steadily increasing stock market commodity. On November 30, 2011 its price fell to $62.37. This came after the company’s decision to separate its DVD rental and streaming services. After watching the stock fall, company executives decided to abort the plan. Its stock recovered quickly and has climbed even higher than it was before the proposed change. [5]

Innovation

Netflix is a company that always seems to be ahead of the curve. After amassing 6.3 million members as a strictly DVD rental service, it launched its online streaming service in 2007. [4] After hovering around $20 per stock for years, this development started the company skyrocketing, topping out at roughly $290. This promptly fell after the announcement of Qwikster, which was the proposed streaming-only branch of Netflix. While this was a failure, it was innovative nonetheless.

Click here to watch a BloombergTV feature on Qwikster.

Netflix has rebuilt its popularity and image largely through original content.

latintimes.com

House of Cards was the first heavily advertised piece of original content from Netflix. “A Congressman works with his equally conniving wife to exact revenge on the people who betrayed him. [6]” The entire 13 episode first season was released at once so that viewers could “binge watch” it. Many analysts questioned whether this was a good business decision, theorizing that viewers wouldn’t remain hooked long enough for Netflix to prosper financially. [7] The numbers proved those doubters wrong. In the financial quarter following the show’s debut, Netflix gained 3 million new subscribers. In that quarter alone, the company made back its money on the program in which it had invested $100 million. [8] The show received 9 Emmy nominations and won for Outstanding Casting, Directing, and Cinematography in a Drama Series. [9]

pcmag.com

Netflix also found success in its debut of the fourth season of the cult hit Arrested Development. Executives attributed the bump of 630,000 new subscribers in the second quarter of 2013 to the show’s dedicated fan base. [10] The season earned three Emmy nominations. [11]

In addition to original content, Netflix has been innovative in customizing the user experience. In 2006, the company announced the “Netflix Prize,” which would award $1 million to the person or team who came up with the best algorithm to accurately give entertainment recommendations based on personal preference. Three years later, they had received submissions from more than 40,000 teams from 186 countries. [4] The prize was awarded in 2009, but the company never implemented the algorithm. According to Netflix, the “additional accuracy gains that we measured did not seem to justify the engineering effort needed to bring them into a production environment. [12]“

Also in the vein of user experience, Netflix recently added the option of multiple profiles to its streaming service. Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt acknowledged that most accounts are shared, usually within one household. In an effort to tailor recommendations to each user specifically, customers can now specify who is watching. The service is free of charge and will also help Netflix in collected more accurate user data. [13]

Competition

One might assume that Netflix is a competitor with cable providers. CEO Reed Hastings has a different view. In a letter to investors, he outlined his company’s main areas of focus moving forward, breaking down its competition into two categories. The first is “competitors-for-time,” meaning entertainment options that do not bid against Netflix. While markets may not overlap between Netflix and video game providers, sports networks, and piracy, all of those options eat up consumer time that could be spent watching Netflix. The other category is “competitors-for-content.” The largest competitor here is HBO. Hastings discloses that the companies have bid against each other for movie licensing and original content in the past, and that they seem to be pushing each other to be better consumer-oriented services. Hastings also lists Amazon, Hulu and others as competitors-for-content. At the same time, he believes that there will be enough room for everyone. “Many consumers will subscribe to multiple services if they each have unique compelling content. [14]

On The Horizon

Netflix plans to build upon its success with original content. It has renewed each of its original shows for second seasons, and has expressed desire to make another season of Arrested Development as well. “[We would] be delighted to produce a fifth season of Arrested Development, if possible, given fan reaction.” The company also plans to produce its own full-length documentaries and comedy specials and stream them exclusively. [15]

There is also speculation that Netflix is pushing for day-and-date movie releases, meaning that it could begin streaming a film the same day it premieres in theaters. Though Netflix has not confirmed this, theater owners are wary that the development could put them out of business. Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s Chief Content Officer, accused theaters of refusing to adapt, saying “not only are they going to kill theaters — they might kill movies.” Currently, theaters have a 90 day exclusivity deal, wherein films cannot be shown anywhere else for three months. But recent studies state that theaters make 96% of total revenue from a film’s first six weeks. At the very least, we can expect Netflix to cut the amount of time between theatrical releases to streaming down to between 30-45 days. This would spell greater profits for both Netflix and movie studios while only trimming 4% of theaters’ revenue. [16] At the very least, we can expect an innovator like Netflix to be on the forefront of the entertainment business in the years to come.

Sources

[1] About Netflix

[2] About Reed Hastings

[3] Reed Hastings Profile – Bloomberg Businessweek

[4] Netflix Company Timeline

[5] Nasdaq

[6] House of Cards imdb

[7] Variety Binge Watching

[8] The Atlantic Wire

[9] Emmys – House of Cards

[10] Huffington Post Tech

[11] Emmys – Arrested Development