Good results from Twitter and Snapchat
Twitter and Snapchat announced some good results yesterday both in terms of increases in revenues and daily active users.
Advertising revenues were strong and Twitter arrested a decline in users by continuing to crack down on fake accounts and trolling while Snapchat posted its first user increase for 12 months!
This goes to show that there’s enough advertising pie for companies other than Facebook and Google to benefit from but I still think that these two companies need to do more in terms of diversifying their income streams.
Growing ad revenues now is great, but I think that will hit a ceiling.
When that happens, investors will realise that they are both just one-trick ponies again and start selling unless the companies give them something else to believe in.
Digital start-up Revolut
The other thing I wanted to mention today was the British digital start-up Revolut.
Recent allegations that the company is subject to Russian influence, presumably because its founder Nikolay Storonsky was born there, have grown to the extent that the Lithuanian Parliament is meeting to debate on these links.
If it finds anything questionable, it will rescind the European banking licence it granted Revolut as recently as December and the bank will be in a right pickle as it relied on this licence to expand its product suite and its geographical presence.
Storonsky has so far denied any Russian connection, but this could get serious if the Lithuanian government get nervy.
