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Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) Olympic Data Needs Context

Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) Olympic Data

Date Published: 2016-08-22

Preface
Twitter Inc. has released data surrounding the Rio Olympics and the numbers look big, but context is needed.

STORY
On Twitter's official blog, we were met Monday morning with data surrounding platform usage and the Olympics. Here are some highlights.

* 187 million tweets were sent.
* Those tweets received 75 billion impressions.

While the blog post does a great job of engaging the readers, listing the top tweeted athletes and sports, it also gently reminds readers of the Twitter Moments product, which, depending on your source, is either a growing success or a sinking disappointment.

"
Twitter Moments kept fans around the world connected to the live #Rio2016 moments, Tweets and conversation.

We launched a new Rio 2016 section in Moments and fans had the option to follow country specific Moments, will lasted throughout the Games.

CONTEXT
While the blog post from Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) is appreciated by shareholders and non-shareholders alike, it does lack a critical element -- context. We are left wondering if this Olympics was a major lift relative to four years ago and further, if the logged-out user base was engaged to come to the Twitter platform and remain there because of the events.

That last bit is critical, as the clock ticks ever louder to the start of the NFL season and Twitter's live streaming of the nationally broadcast Thursday night games. In a rather shrewd move, the company decided that "training" people to use the platform, or waiting for them to learn on their own, has not proven to be a good tactic and they pivoted.

In perhaps one of the defining moments of Twitter Inc. in the last several months, the company alluded to the fact that everyone knows how to watch streaming video -- there's no learning curve for that. With that mindset, the company has thrust itself forward as the leader in streaming video for many of the major professional sports franchises in the United States and the U.K.

It would have been great if Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) would have given us some context, but they did not. it's quite possible that competitive reasons were the culprit -- sometimes oversharing is competitive disadvantage. Ask Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) -- they're about as secretive as it gets.

The author is long shares of Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL).

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