Twitter Inc.'s role as a megaphone for the U. S. president and numerous celebrities has failed to attract ordinary people to the social-networking platform, the company's latest earnings report and dismal forecast indicated.

Jack Dorsey, the chief executive officer of Twitter, acknowledged that the company might not be meeting everyone's growth expectations, and admitted that they needed to do more to convince people.

In a conference call with analysts, Dorsey said, "The whole world is watching Twitter. 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. You don't go a day without hearing about Twitter."

It is an open secret that Twitter is struggling to translate influence into growing its user base and advertising to increase its revenue and profit. Rumors of the company's potential sale have long been swirling over the Internet.

Despite making several efforts, Twitter has yet to make a noteworthy difference in attracting new users. For the final quarter of last year, the company averaged 319 million monthly users, up merely 4 per cent from the same quarter of 2015.

Like many other Industry experts, Prof. Mark Skilton of Warwick Business School cautioned that Twitter shareholders and CEO Dorsey are running out of time.