Twitter reports net loss as active user numbers stall

Updated

Twitter added just four million monthly active users in the last three months, as the social media site also reported a net loss of 132 million US dollars (£86 million) in its latest financial results.

The micro-blogging site announced revenue of 569 million dollars (£371 million) for the quarter, which beat the analyst predictions, however the lack of movement in user numbers meant the firm's stock dropped 9% immediately after the earnings announcement.

Twitter co-founder and returning CEO Jack Dorsey said of the results: "We continued to see strong financial performance this quarter, as well as meaningful progress across our three areas of focus: ensuring more disciplined execution, simplifying our services, and better communicating the value of our platform.

"We've simplified our roadmap and organisation around a few big bets across Twitter, Periscope, and Vine that we believe represent our largest opportunities for growth."

Earlier this month Twitter confirmed it was "streamlining" the business and cut 8% of the company's total workforce as part of the measures.

The social media site is trying to catch the likes of Facebook, which has more than one billion monthly active users. Facebook-owned services Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram all currently have higher user rates than Twitter.

Mr Dorsey returned to the company this summer after the departure of Dick Costolo, who was unable to spark major growth and criticised the site for the way it dealt with those who send abuse to others, saying it "sucks" at dealing with online abuse.

Mr Dorsey himself admitted that the site was still too confusing shortly after taking over, and Twitter has already started tweaking the appearance of the site in order to improve user engagement.

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