Why Twitter And TikTok Were Big Social Media Winners In Q2

Social media stocks experienced some major volatility throughout second-quarter earnings season. On Thursday, Bank of America analyst Justin Post recapped the second quarter and highlighted which social media platforms were the biggest winners.

User Growth: Post said Twitter Inc TWTR reported the highest two-year growth in daily active users among public social media stocks. Twitter reported 37 million DAUs, up 13% annually from 2019. In international markets, Pinterest Inc PINS had the highest growth, up 30% annually from 2019 levels. Snap Inc SNAP also reported solid growth numbers thanks to its Android expansion. Snap reported two-year annualized U.S. and international user growth of 7% and 28% in the quarter.

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According to the latest SensorTower data, Post said TikTok is the biggest social media threat today in the U.S. market. U.S. TikTok mobile DAUs are up 53% in the past two years compared to 11% growth from Twitter and 5% growth from Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, Inc. FB. TikTok’s international growth is just 10% after the app was banned in India last year.

Engagement & Monetization: Post said the short-form video is the top driver of time spent on social media, and the biggest winners are TikTok and YouTube, which is owned by Alphabet, Inc. GOOGGOOGL. In the second quarter, TikTok had roughly 85 minutes per daily user, up 162% annually since 2019. YouTube had 69 minutes of time spent per daily user, up 21%.

In terms of monetization, Post said Snap was the big standout in the second quarter. Snap reported average revenue per user of $7.39, up 54% annually from just $3.13 in 2019. In the international market, Pinterest had the highest ARPU growth at 81% on a two-year basis.

Benzinga’s Take: Social media is obviously an attractive long-term investment opportunity, but it can be difficult to pick winners and losers at this point. Companies are attempting to grow user counts, increase engagement, gain market share, improve monetization and deliver earnings and revenue beats.

Image: TikTok; Twitter, Alexander Shatov via Unsplash