The number of U.S. monthly active users fell to 68 million in the second quarter from 70 million in the first quarter, which is why many retailers are taking their ad dollars elsewhere.

Twitter Inc.’s user growth problem got worse in the second quarter as the social network failed to add any net new monthly active users during the period, the social network reported Thursday. And in the United States the news was even worse: The number of monthly active users fell to 68 million in the second quarter from 70 million in the first quarter.

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That struggle has led retailers and other advertisers to shift their ad dollars away from Twitter. For the third straight quarter, Twitter’s advertising revenue was lower than it was in the same quarter a year earlier.

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CEO Jack Dorsey, in a letter to shareholders, emphasized the social network’s  quarter-over-quarter gain in total revenue. “We made progress executing against our top revenue-generating priorities in the second quarter and underlying business fundamentals strengthened as a result,” he wrote. That growth stemmed from the social network’s data products that enable other companies to pay to access Twitter’s data.

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“We remain focused on improving the performance and measurement of existing revenue products with ad platform improvements and new measurement initiatives, tapping into new channels of demand and new ways to buy ads on Twitter, and continuing to grow our data revenue with a new product and channel segmented go-to-market approach,” Dorsey added.

For the second quarter ended June 30, Twitter reported:

  • $489.1 million in ad revenue, down 8.5% from $534.5 million a year earlier.
  • $573.9 million in total revenue, down 4.7% from $602.0 million.
  • 328 million monthly active users worldwide, up 4.8% from 313 million in the same period a year earlier, and unchanged from the first quarter.
  • $116.5 million net loss compared with a $107.2 million loss a year earlier.

For the first half of the year, Twitter reported:

  • $962.9 million in ad revenue, down 9.6% from $1.065 billion a year earlier.
  • $1.122 billion in total revenue, down 6.2% from $1.196 billion.
  • $178.0 million net loss compared with a $186.9 million loss a year earlier.
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