Jack Dorsey says Twitter is still too hard to figure out for users and advertisers.
"One-third of the 2 million new people who come every day come with expectations of what (Twitter) should be, then get disappointed when they can't find what they want," the company CEO told an audience of investors gathered in San Francisco for the annual Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference on Tuesday.
"It's a lot of work right now."
Dorsey made the comments just before the close of U.S. markets on a day that Twitter shares rose 8 percent. The stock is now up 24 percent since last Thursday, when Twitter reported its first quarterly profit as part of better-than-expected fourth-quarter results.
Still, the company needs to improve, Dorsey said. To explain why, he talked about Mary Babers Green, mother of Draymond Green, a basketball all-star who plays for the NBA champion Golden State Warriors.
"Draymond Green's mom is really hilarious ... she trolls other NBA moms and her own son," including during games, Dorsey says. Seeing her tweets during a game makes it more enjoyable to watch, yet "it takes months to find out who she is and why to follow her. It should be easier," he said.
Twitter is working on giving each user a more personalized experience, one that takes into account the context of the topic or other content they come to the site for, he said.
The company is also working on making it easier for users to express themselves much faster and with something other than text posts.
"We got stuck in the age of typing," Dorsey said. "The power of text is amazing but in some context you want to see an image or video and (something) more immersive."
Advertisers are also still telling Dorsey to simplify things.
"People are saying, 'I need this to be easier, I need to be able to measure this and prove that it works,'" he said in reply to a question about what advertisers are asking of the company.
"They're asking for a lot more simplicity."
The company is working on making more content, including ad products, "self-serve," said Dorsey, who also serves as CEO of payments company Square.
Twitter wants to generate new revenue opportunities for creators and advertisers, especially for video.
"Video is our fastest growing content," he said. "We'll be applying a lot of technology to this."
