Riding a wave of new users, improved advertising options and an embrace of video content by users and advertisers alike, Twitter Inc.'s revenue has leaped in Japan, helping lead the company to its first quarterly profit.
Earlier this month Twitter reported that sales in the country jumped 34 percent in the last three months of 2017, compared with a year earlier, to $106 million (about ¥11 billion).
In Japan, Twitter's success in converting users into revenue — a problem that has vexed the social network since its founding — has raised hopes it might lead to broader growth across the company. Investors and analysts, however, point to Japan-specific factors that may not be replicable elsewhere.