Twitter is a micro-blogging site based in San Francisco, California. (Photo : Getty Images)
Twitter Inc., after experiencing a disappointing fourth-quarter earnings, has been overtaken by its Chinese rival, Weibo Corp., which is now worth $11.3 billion--approximately $200 million more than the San Francisco-based social media site, Bloomberg reported.
According to the report, the micro-blogging service's two-day plunge "has pushed its market value below that of its fast-growing Chinese-language peer." Following a weak 2016 Q4, Twitter's stock dropped more than 10 percent last week.
"While we may not be meeting everyone's growth expectations, there's one thing that continues to grow and outpace our peers: Twitter's influence and impact," Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey previously remarked.
Twitter also continues to see stalled growth in its number of users, while Weibo has been witnessing an opposite trend.
In the fourth quarter, the former managed to only add two million new users, pushing its total to 319 million. This statistic is one of the lowest it has obtained for the last three quarters. Reports also noted that during the past year, the platform has lost 5 million monthly active users.
Meanwhile, Weibo boasts over 290 million monthly active users as of October last year, pulling in 70 million new users.
Apart from this, Twitter has also been grappling with other issues, one of which is the site becoming an avenue for harassment and online abuse. Though it continues to make efforts to provide a solution, it has cost the company a number of users already, including celebrity figures.
This was not the first time that Twitter was about to be eclipsed by its Chinese contemporary. Back in Oct. 2016, when rumors have surfaced that it sought and failed to have a buyer, the company came close to have its share price plummet below to the market cap of Weibo.
Weibo, which is partly owned by e-commerce titan Alibaba, started out in Aug. 2009, a month after Twitter had been blocked in China.
