“You will probably see some evidence this year” of various approaches, Dorsey told analysts in a call for investors to discuss the company’s second-quarter earnings results. Dorsey said she has “a very high bar for when we would ask consumers to pay for aspects of Twitter,” but confirmed that the company is seeking to diversify its revenue streams in the “very, very early stages of exploration.”
Twitter shares rose 4% in early trading on Thursday following the earnings results.
Like its rival social networks, Twitter has focused on offering a free service and making money by allowing brands to target ads to their millions of users.
“We want to make sure that any new line of revenue is complementary to our advertising business,” said Dorsey. “We believe there is a world where subscription is complementary, where commerce is complementary, where helping people manage payments … we believe it is complementary.”
Twitter’s growth plans are under close scrutiny as many advertisers pull out due to the pandemic. On Thursday, Twitter reported second quarter advertising revenue of $ 562 million, a 23% decrease from the same quarter a year ago.
Twitter’s earnings report follows what Dorsey described as a “difficult week” in which the company rushed to tackle a massive attack that compromised numerous verified accounts, including those of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
Dorsey apologized in the conference call Thursday for last week’s massive security breach, saying “we are behind schedule” on the company’s security obligations.
“We feel terrible about the security incident,” he said. “Security has no end point. It is a constant iteration … We will continue to go beyond here as we continue to protect our systems and as we continue to work with outside companies and law enforcement officers.”
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