Twitter gained 9m new users in the past three months as live video grew but revenues declined, the social media site’s latest financial results show.
The increase in user numbers over the first quarter of this year was well above analyst predictions, which had anticipated them to rise by about two million.
The company’s earnings report is a boost to the social platform, which has struggled in recent years to attract new users and has been hit by controversies over its handling of online abuse.
The mini-blogging site is popular with journalists and news organisations as a means of sharing and finding stories.
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Twitter reported monthly active users had risen to 328 million, up from 319 million in the last quarter, and a 6 per cent increase on this time last year.
The platform’s recently established live video streaming service also reported 31 per cent more interaction this quarter, with 45 million unique views across more than 800 hours of live video.
The firm’s chief executive and co-founder Jack Dorsey said: “We’re proud to report accelerating growth in daily active usage for the fourth consecutive quarter, up 14 per cent year-on-year.
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“We’re delivering on our goal to build a service that people love to use, every day and we’re encouraged by the audience growth momentum we saw in the first quarter.
“While we continue to face revenue headwinds, we believe that executing on our plan and growing our audience should result in positive revenue growth over the long term.”
The company posted revenue income of $548m (£427m) this quarter, down 8 per cent on the $595m (£464m) reported in the same period last year.
Twitter’s chief operating officer, Anthony Noto, said: “We’re proud of our performance in Live after just six months – last quarter alone, we streamed more than 800 hours of live premium video and reached 45 million unique viewers, an increase of 31 per cent from the previous quarter.
“We remain focused on our initiatives to grow revenue by simplifying our revenue product portfolio, communicating our progress to advertisers and re-allocating resources to our highest revenue generating priorities.”
Picture: Twitter/PA Wire
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