Twitter said on Thursday it has a goal of reaching $7.5 billion in revenue or more by 2023, up from the $3.7 billion it made last year. It is also projecting its daily user base to grow to at least 315 million by the end of 2023, or around 20% annually between now and then, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Shares of Twitter rose more than 6% in early-morning trading after the announcement. The company is hosting an event for analysts Thursday — its first in several years — in which it plans to go into greater detail on its goals.
This is the first time Twitter has set long-term goals for revenue and daily users
Twitter has been steadily growing users for years but it lags behind competitors such as Facebook Inc. and Snap Inc., parent of ephemeral-messaging platform Snapchat. For the December-ended quarter, Twitter said it had 192 million daily users, while Facebook reported roughly 1.85 billion and Snap said it had 265 million.
This year Twitter has said it plans to expand its workforce by more than 20%, mainly in areas such as engineering, product, design and research. The company ended 2020 with more than 5,500 employees. It expects total operating costs and expenses to rise 25% in 2021, slightly higher than the 2020 growth rate of about 19%.
Twitter has previously said one way it hopes to grow is by appealing to more small business advertisers. The company has also hinted at plans to launch a subscription service.
Last month Twitter said it reached a deal to buy newsletter platform Revue Holding BV, tapping into a trend of tech companies providing content creators with tools to make money. The growing space includes other newsletter startups such as Substack Inc. and Rocket Science Group LLC’s Mailchimp.
The social media network has struggled to catch up with larger rivals like Facebook and smaller viral apps like ByteDance’s TikTok in offering features. But in recent months, it has made a push to launch services such as audio-chat, similar to that of viral app Clubhouse.
