Brett Molina

USA TODAY

So much for the "Trump bump."

Twitter missed Wall Street estimates on revenue in the fourth quarter, marking the 10th straight quarter of slowing revenue growth, despite an uptick in user engagement propelled by President Trump's avid use of the social media service.

For the quarter, Twitter posted revenue of $717.2 million, a 1% increase from a year ago. Analysts had projected fourth-quarter revenue of $740 million, according to analysts polled by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Twitter had a net loss of $167.1 million in the quarter.

CEO Jack Dorsey said his company is focused on why people use Twitter: "It's the fastest way to see what's happening and what everyone's talking about."

Activity on the service did increase in the fourth quarter, but slow user growth continued to take a toll on the company. For the quarter, Twitter had 319 million monthly active users, up 4%. Twitter says daily active usage in the fourth quarter was up 11%. Time spent on Twitter grew in the double digits, the company said.

Despite Twitter's growing visibility on the world stage with Trump using his personal and POTUS accounts, the company's chief operating officer Anthony Noto said it would be difficult for any one event or person "to drive sustained growth."

Shares of Twitter plunged 12% to $16.41, partly on a much lower-than-expected earnings forecast. For the first quarter, Twitter projected adjusted earnings between $75 million and $95 million. Analysts had expected about $182 million.

Twitter has taken several steps to attract more users, including partnerships with the NFL to stream Thursday night football games and user updates such as changes to the home timeline and an emphasis on push notifications when news happens.

"It may have felt like we weren’t changing much this past year, but those hundreds of little changes added up to more predictable and sustained growth we will now use as a foundation to be more inventive and take bigger risks," said Dorsey.

Meanwhile, overall advertising revenue fell slightly compared to the same period last year, with ad revenue generated in the U.S. down 5%.

This is where the lack of monthly user growth hurts Twitter, says Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter. People are checking the service several times a day to keep up with the latest Trump tweets but Twitter shows few signs of adding more users.

"I get it, there are more impressions," Pachter said. "But if they haven't attracted more people, they can't make the use case to advertisers."

Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.