????周二的財報已經(jīng)證明，Twitter并不像人們想象的那樣四面楚歌。

????它剛發(fā)布的第二季度財報表現(xiàn)極為搶眼，讓華爾街的唱衰者大吃一驚。Twitter第二季度的收入達(dá)到3.12億美元，比去年同期翻了一倍還多。與此同時，Twitter的活躍用戶增勢喜人，用戶數(shù)同比增加了24%，達(dá)到2.71億人次。這使得Twitter的股價在周三上漲20%，收盤于46.3美元。

????考慮到在過去三個季度中，這家社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)的盈利情況令人失望，華爾街預(yù)計Twitter將會遭遇重挫，但這次Twitter輕松地讓他們大跌眼鏡。

????貝雅公司（Robert W. Baird & Co.）的分析師科林?塞巴斯蒂安認(rèn)為，Twitter近幾個月的成功主要應(yīng)歸功于一些全球事件，像冬奧會和世界杯，這些活動凸顯了Twitter作為即時信息源的價值。他指出，用戶在Twitter上每天要發(fā)出5億條推文，足以體現(xiàn)出這項(xiàng)服務(wù)在全球的重要性。

????塞巴斯蒂安解釋道：“Twitter還在不斷改進(jìn)應(yīng)用，增強(qiáng)它們的功能，比如加入照片和視頻等富媒體?！?/p>

????巴克萊資本（Barclays Capital）的分析師保羅?沃格爾表示，Twitter用戶群的增長也增加了其廣告點(diǎn)擊率——確切地說，是每年增加250%以上。沃格爾預(yù)計，為了保持這一勢頭，Twitter很快就會把重心更多地傾向視頻工具，這樣美國橄欖球聯(lián)盟（National Football League）等營銷商就能像在其他網(wǎng)站一樣，利用這一服務(wù)創(chuàng)建和發(fā)布短片。

????Twitter在這方面已經(jīng)取得了一定進(jìn)步。去年，Twitter推出了視頻廣告產(chǎn)品Amplify，可以讓各品牌和電視網(wǎng)絡(luò)在Twitter上分享現(xiàn)場直播或預(yù)先錄制好的視頻。英國廣播公司美國頻道（BBC America）、?？怂梗‵OX）和天氣頻道（Weather Channel）成為了他們的第一批合作伙伴。迄今為止，Amplify主要在體育賽事和頒獎典禮上為Twitter用戶所使用。在2013年的美國網(wǎng)球公開賽上，喜力（Heineken）利用Amplify發(fā)布了124條帶視頻的推文，被近1,200萬用戶觀看。這次活動取得了相當(dāng)?shù)某晒?，因此喜力決定在今年即將到來的網(wǎng)球公開賽上繼續(xù)使用這一產(chǎn)品。在本周三的財報會議上，Twitter首席執(zhí)行官迪克?科斯特羅強(qiáng)調(diào)了Amplify具有“與電視和其他內(nèi)容創(chuàng)造者合作，幫助他們增加受眾”的價值。

????在Twitter改善綜合體驗(yàn)的過程中，這類產(chǎn)品將起到關(guān)鍵作用，決定其第二季度的收益能否開啟一波盈利高潮。盡管Twitter的收入和用戶增長量令人吃驚，但他們?nèi)匀惶潛p了1.45億美元，其部分原因是股權(quán)補(bǔ)償——這是去年同期4,200萬美元虧損的三倍多。（財富中文網(wǎng)）

????譯者：嚴(yán)匡正

????As Tuesday’s earnings proved, Twitter isn’t quite the beleaguered business people thought it was.

????It reported strong second quarter results that surprised the Wall Street naysayers. Revenue more than doubled to $312 million from the same time last year. Meanwhile, the number of active users grew a very healthy 24% to 271 million. As a result, Twitter’s shares gained 20% on Wednesday to close at $46.30.

????That Twitter handily trumped Wall Street’s expectations signals a significant reversal, given that over the last three quarters, the social network’s earnings have disappointed.

????Colin Sebastian, an analyst with Robert W. Baird & Co., chalks up much of Twitter’s success in recent months to global events like the Olympics and World Cup that helped highlight the value of Twitter as a source for information on-the-fly. He pointed to Twitter’s users tapping out 500 million tweets daily as a sign of just how much of the service has become a global water cooler.

????“The company continues to improve applications and make it more useful, such as adding rich media, like photos and videos,” Sebastian explained.

????Paul Vogel, a Barclays Capital analyst, said that Twitter’s growing user base is also clicking on more advertisements — on the order of 250% more year-over-year, to be exact. To keep the ad momentum going, Vogel expects Twitter to soon focus more on video tools that would let marketers like the National Football League create and tweet brief clips on the service as well as on other sites.

????Twitter has already made some headway there. Last year, Twitter introduced Amplify, a video advertising product that lets brands and TV networks share live or pre-recorded video on Twitter. Initial partners included BBC America, FOX and The Weather Channel. To date, Amplify has largely been used to reach Twitter users during live events like sports and awards shows. For the 2013 U.S. Open tennis tournament, Heineken beer used Amplify to send out 124 Tweets with video, which was viewed by nearly 12 million users. The campaign was successful enough that Heineken plans to use Amplify again at this year’s upcoming tournament. On Wednesday’s earning call, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo emphasized the value of Amplify “to partner with TV and other content creators and help them increase their audiences.”

????Such products, along with Twitter’s improvement of the overall experience, will remain key to deciding whether its second-quarter earnings are the start of a positive trend towards profitability. Despite surprising revenue and user growth, Twitter still reported $145 million in losses, partly due to stock-based compensation — over three times the $42 million loss from the same period last year.