NEW YORK: Twitter’s share price dropped 10% amid continuing signs of slowing growth at the social media company.
Results released on Monday for the third quarter of the year show Twitter’s revenues soared to $361m, up 114% from the same period last year, beating expectations. But the number of monthly active users of the service grew just 13 million to 284 million from the previous quarter. Analysts had predicted growth would between 14 million and 17 million.
The number of monthly active users represents a 23% increase year on year but was up just 4.8% from the last set of results and below the 6.3% quarter-on-quarter growth it reported in the second quarter.
The company has shaken up management and begun changing its platform in order to make it more accessible to new users. During the quarter it updated its service on Apple’s iPhone, introduced a new options for its Vine video service and launched a new service tailored to NFL fans. Last week it held its first developers conference in four years, a move to embed its real-time technology in a new generation of apps and services.
While revenues are growing strongly, Twitter remains unprofitable. It reported a net loss of $175m for the quarter, up from $64.6m last year. And the slowing growth rate has worried investors.
Twitter’s share price was $48.56 when stock markets closed on Monday, down 24% this year. The company also disappointed investors with its prediction for revenues for the current quarter. Twitter is projecting revenues between $440m and $450m.
