Twitter No Longer a Social Network but a News App on Apple's App Store

After reporting dismal results this week, micro-blogging website Twitter is no longer pitted against social networks like Facebook and is now categorised under the News section of Apple's App Store.

The reclassification is seen as a move to bring more visibility to the app, giving it further prominence than a listing on the Social Networking section. Of course, while Twitter has been focusing on the real-time news aspect tin the recent past, this reclassification on face value certainly appears to have given it a boost in terms of visibility - it is now the number one app in the US in the News section.

Twitter is famous for real-time news feeds and events and unlike Facebook, it is preferred less when it comes to keeping in touch with friends. It is more about following people who share things you find interesting and relevant, whether you know them or not.

Twitter Moments was probably the biggest new feature the service launched in the last year and it again shows its focus squarely on curating the best commentary surrounding current events, the report noted.

This is probably the best thing that has happened with Twitter as this change has helped it gain more visibility and it is now the number one free app in the news category of the App Store.

Twitter shares fell sharply about 12 percent after the micro-blogging website - which managed to add 5 million people to take its monthly active user base to 310 million - missed the first quarter revenue estimates this week.

The company posted $595 million (roughly Rs. 3,948 crores) revenue in the first quarter ending March 31. It was up 36 percent from $435.9 million (roughly Rs. 2,892 crores) in the same quarter last year but missed the $607.9 million expected on average among analysts, Forbes reported.

Twitter posted a net loss of $79.7 million compared with a year-earlier loss of $162.4 million.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said that "we remain focused on improving our service to make it fast, simple and easy to use".

Twitter has predicted revenue for the second quarter between $590 million and $610 million - much lower than the $678 million analysts expected.

"Revenue came in at the low end of our guidance range, as brand marketers did not increase spend as quickly as expected in Q1," the company tweeted.

According to Dorsey, the engagement on Twitter is growing. Direct messages are up about 50 percent year-over-year and tweets shared via direct message are up more than 75 percent quarter-over-quarter.

Twitter said more than 800 million people visit the site and there are more than 1 billion monthly unique visitors to pages that syndicate Twitter content.

Twitter's stock has fallen over 20 percent this year amid sluggish growth.

Written with inputs from IANS