Twitter reported its first profit yesterday, sending its shares to their highest levels in two years and suggesting advertisers are beginning to spread their online spending beyond Facebook and Google.
Its $91m in net income in the fourth quarter comes after a similar upbeat pre-Christmas performance by Snapchat’s parent, which posted strong revenue growth on Wednesday following unexpected increases in users and advertising.
For years, Wall Street has been sceptical that smaller internet companies such as Twitter and Snap could ever challenge the dominance of Google and Facebook, which together account for more than three quarters of global spending on digital advertising.