At times, Twitter can feel like the most important place on the planet. For one thing, it is the mouthpiece for the leader of the free world: Donald Trump's tweets are so carefully monitored that companies and governments have people watching his account around the clock.

The US President's missives about foreign policy or government spending have sent currencies tumbling and stock prices soaring. During Trump's ascent to power, the world has watched Twitter: it has never felt more vital, relevant or plugged in to the global zeitgeist.

The paradox in all this is that Twitter Inc is in a funk. Even the heavy involvement of "The Donald" has done little to turn the company's fortunes around.

Eleven years after it was founded, it has now lost more than $US2.5 billion ($3.3 billion) and its shares have plunged well below the price set when Twitter went public in 2013.

Behind this is one simple truth: for all its worldly influence, the number of people actually using Twitter has barely budged in two years. Britain is one of its more successful markets, with an estimated 22 million monthly users, but worldwide membership has stalled at around 320 million.

The service lets users broadcast public messages of 140 characters to other users who follow them. It is criticised as complicated for the uninitiated and it is also accused of housing a sinister streak that makes it a petri dish for abuse and harassment.

Eighteen months ago, Twitter's founder, Jack Dorsey, returned, messiah-like, as chief executive. But saving Twitter has been harder than he might have thought. Dorsey is also a part-time boss: his time is split between Twitter and Square, his payments company which made its way to the UK last week.

Second in command is Anthony Noto, the company's chief operating officer. When he was a Goldman Sachs banker, Noto led Twitter's initial public offering, before jumping ship in 2014 to become Twitter's chief financial officer. Like Dorsey, he has two jobs: he became COO in November but still holds the purse strings until a new finance chief is found.

Noto is Twitter's engine room. A graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point, he was a star on the college's American football team, and at 48, he still looks that part. When asked what the positive vision for Twitter is (after another quarter of more losses and meagre user growth), he hits me with a machine-gun round of answers that in no way suggest the company is in trouble.

Twitter, he says, pressed a big "reset" button when Dorsey returned to figure out what it was for.

It decided to focus on being the fastest place to get different types of information and discuss live events, and personalising the service to suit different users. Since then, Noto says, while growth in monthly users has stalled, those users are on Twitter more often.

The number of log-ins every day has grown by 11 per cent in a year, and there has also been a double-digit increase in the number of tweets people view.

"2016 was a really important year to show that our strategy, and our decision on what Twitter is, really worked," he says. "We're really happy to have that success."

If Twitter is really on the right path, can it take the credit, or has it merely received an auspiciously-timed Trump bump?

Some analysts have suggested that the President's use of the site could provide a much-needed jolt of energy to Twitter, but Noto insists increased usage has been down to changes the company has itself made.

"Having global leaders use Twitter as a platform helps build awareness, it helps spark discussion, debate and controversy, all of which reinforces our ability to show you what's happening in the world better than anyone else," he says.

But the president's virtual rampages have only had a limited effect: changes such as switching the Twitter timeline from a chronologically ordered feed of tweets to one arranged by an algorithm had a bigger impact.

Even if activity is picking up, however, this does not appear to have translated into financial gains. In the fourth quarter of last year, revenue flat-lined. Advertising sales, disastrously, fell for the first time. Twitter's shares have plumbed new depths since a sale to possible bidders that, it was said, included Google and Disney failed to materialise.

Noto says last year's sale talks were not distracting. "Our board understands its fiduciary duty, that if there is interest in the company they have to evaluate that. We have a lot of confidence in [our] strategy, it's proving to be effective."

Twitter is hardly a busted flush (a stock market value of $US10 billion is not to be sniffed at) but not everybody is so confident. Some have suggested that Twitter would be better off run as a non-profit cooperative, a public service owned by its users, instead of being subject to the whims of shareholders.

Noto says Twitter can have the best of both worlds.

"It's an incredibly impactful service [but] it's also an incredibly successful business. There are different ebbs and flows of growth rates, but achieving more than $US2.5 billion of revenue and over $US400 million in free cash flow in 2016 is a significant accomplishment for any company, let alone one that has a non-monetary impact that's hard to quantify," he says.

The claims of success are up for debate, but Noto predicts revenues will improve in the coming months, as advertising budgets catch up with the greater use of Twitter. The company is pushing further into lucrative video advertising, encouraging companies to post sports clips, and it is agreeing deals with television companies to live-stream broadcasts.

Noto reveals that the company is looking to expand this by having Twitter host live broadcasts such as football matches from pay-TV providers, letting subscribers log in using their account details via the Twitter app. It is early days for making deals, and the financial opportunities are unclear.

But Noto says: "For the last 11 years we've had people on the platform talking about live events as they're unfolding, whether they're on television or not. An important element to making Twitter faster is having live content. We want to use the video to reinforce the product being faster, to have more selection, to drive more discussion."

Uniquely for a social media company, Twitter is also considering charging users of TweetDeck, a souped-up version of Twitter, with a monthly fee of between $US4.99 and $US19.99 while allowing extras such as analytics and customer support.

Noto says Twitter is merely testing the idea at present but that "we think there are opportunities to look at consumers paying for special services".

Paid-for or not, Twitter's bosses know that its future depends on curbing the harassment and abuse of users by users that the company has struggled with.

Its free speech credentials and public nature, as well as a refusal to force accounts to use real identities, has allowed trolls to hide behind anonymity. In recent months, the company has added new features to tackle this, which have been largely well-received.

"Twitter's a safer place than it was a year ago," Noto insists. "We've had an all-out sprint to make the product safer, it's a huge focus for the company."

Saving Twitter has been harder than many people thought. One thing is for certain: it will take more than Trump's helping hand to turn it round.

The Sunday Telegraph, London