Twitter has reported a sales boost of 114 percent to $361 million in its third-quarter results. A 23 percent year-on-year hike in the total number of active users brings the total to 284 million.
However, sales growth is slowing. In Q2 Twitter boosted revenues by 124 percent year on year to $312m, but also reported a loss of $145 million. The company is still not profitable, reporting a net loss of $175 million for the period, up from $64.6 million last year.
The social network also recorded a slowdown in user growth during the three months ending 30 September. While user numbers were up 4.8 percent in its second quarter, it marked a fall in Q2’s growth rate of 6.3 percent.
Twitter’s commercial strategy, which has seen recent initiatives such as the introduction of objective-based campaigns that allow advertisers to pay only for ads that hit their campaign targets, appears to be paying off.
The 114 percent sales increase resulted in revenues of $361 million, with 85 percent of that accounted for by mobile.
Looking ahead, Twitter is forecasting continuing growth – fourth quarter sales are likely to be between $440 million and $450 million, it said.
The third-quarter results fell short of analyst expectations, sending shares down 8 percent in after-hours trading.
Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said: "We had another very strong financial quarter.
"I’m confident in our ability to build the largest daily audience in the world, over time, by strengthening the core, reducing barriers to consumption and building new apps and services."
This story originally appeared on marketingmagazine.co.uk.