3 min
Twitter made its Wall Street debut on 7 November and its shares jumped from $26 to $45 on the first day of trading. This figure prices the California-based company, whose entry to the stock exchange is the second largest ever by a digital enterprise after Facebook, at around $25 billion at least, according to the El Mundo newspaper.
While this is the biggest recent news from the microblogging social network, there have also been other stories of interest. Its stock exchange debut raised 2.1 billion, which will help managers to cover losses, improve its design and finance acquisitions that increase marketing revenue.
Twitter has a total of 231.7 million monthly users, according to the documentation it was required to submit to the authorities before listing on the exchange, but its growth is decelerating, following last quarter figures of 6.1%, down on the previous quarters 6.86% growth and the 10.77% recorded in the final quarter of 2012. Perhaps for this reason, the social network continues to roll out new options.
Previously, messages only arrived if the sender and the recipient followed each other. Now, Twitter will allow its users, although only long-term users, to receive messages from anyone. This is one of the latest features implemented by the social network. Users only need to enter their configuration and check the option accepting messages from followers the user does not follow. Controlling the direct messages limited the amount of spam or advertising received, and also helped to gain followers because this was the only way to communicate privately with them. Now this situation has changed, although only for some users.
Concerning direct messages, the company also explained that it plans to take new safety measures, such as message encryption, after attempts to intercept data by the United States National Security Agency, according to The New York Times. These enhancements to the private messaging service suggest that Twitter is taking steps to compete with applications such as WhatsApp or Line.
Furthermore, the latest platform update allows images attached to a tweet to be posted automatically on the timeline without the user having to click on them. This option shall only work with images uploaded to Twitter and videos added through Vine, and not with those shared through apps such as Instagram or YouTube. Now the timeline is more interactive because the options to reply, retweet or mark as favourite always appear as active for each tweet.
The list of new features does not end there, and just a few months ago, the platform announced another service designed for emergencies, Twitter Alerts, which is a new tool created to facilitate the flow of information during crises, disasters and emergencies. It is available for local, national and international institutions, such as the fire brigade or the police, which provide information in these kinds of situations. The aim is to be able to inform citizens of risks in real time and supply the latest data to emergency teams about the impact of a disaster. For the time being, the service will be available in the USA, Japan, and Korea, although Twitter plans to extend it to other countries.
Subscribe
Ask for a demo