Twitter Inc (TWTR) Must Not Neglect Its Core Users

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Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) is surely having problems as a public company. The problem is not with its core product or with the advertising money; instead, the real problem is that its own executives are worried “that not enough people use it,” says a report from Forbes by Eric Jackson.  Owing to such problem, the micro blogging site is facing pressure from Wall Street to expand its user base and make users spend more time on the site.

Facebook much bigger

Though Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) is smaller than Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), it was believed that the former would be able to make the shift to mobile more efficiently than the social networker. Facebook was established in the PC age while Twitter was initially an SMS app, which later adapted to PCs.

However, Facebook’s user friendly UI and its mass appeal are a big advantage against any opposition. Also, the fact that the social networker made tremendous expansion in all the geographies around the globe helped Facebook to grow over 1 billion users (now at 1.2 billion monthly active users). On the other hand, Twitter with around 241 million users, has always wanted to achieve its rival’s numbers, but is witnessing a slowing user growth.

Making matters worse for Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), last week, it was reported that by the end of the year, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)-owned Instagram will have more users than the micro blogging site.

Twitter must consider core users

To overcome the declining growth in user base, Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) has tried to make its services more appealing to the masses by adding photo-tagging, more frequent notifications, etc. However, the author notes that all these changes make core users less interested in using the service.

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“As someone who joined Twitter in 2007 and use it at least 50x more than I use Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), the effects of all these Twitter product tweaks has been to water it down and make me less (not more) interested in using it,” says the author.

The author furthermore says that such tweaks won’t force him to use Facebook, but it could push core users like him to explore more options like through messaging apps. Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) is not suffering from a product or ad revenues problem as it has a great product with a wide appeal. But the real problem is “there is a ceiling to the number of users who will use it,” believes the author.

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