Twitter posts net loss as active user numbers stall

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 (£86m) in its latest financial results.

Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey. Picture: Dustin Diaz/Twitter/PA Wire

The micro-blogging site announced revenue of $569m for the quarter, which beat the analyst predictions, but the lack of movement in user numbers meant the firm’s stock dropped 9 per cent immediately after the earnings announcement.

Twitter co-founder and returning chief executive 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 per cent 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.

Dorsey returned to the helm of the company earlier this month 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.