Stocks are tumbling Tuesday on weaker earnings from some blue chips, and there is not much appetite for risk as a result. That could be what is holding back shares of Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR), which has announced that it will begin rolling out two new features for its millions of users.
The first of the new features allows users to create group chats among any of a user’s followers, whether or not the followers also follow one another. The second new feature is a built-in camera for Twitter’s mobile app that lets users shoot, edit and post clips up to 30 seconds long right to their timelines.
What investors want to know is how these new features will lead to greater numbers of active users. That is the single most important metric for Twitter, and growth in active users has slowed. The company must do something to turn that around and this may be a step in the right direction, but it is hardly a game changer.
Video has become a popular feature among users of Facebook Inc.’s (NASDAQ: FB) social media app. The company has said the video posts have risen by 75% worldwide and by 94% in the United States in 2014, according to a report at The Wall Street Journal. Video advertising also has proven to be effective, and Twitter could be stepping up its game to get a piece of that action.
Twitter’s stock has traded as much as 4% lower on Tuesday, to an intra-day low of $38.38 in a 52-week range of $29.51 to $67.24. The company is scheduled to report earnings on February 5.
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