Twitter Shares Dive 12% As User Growth Slows

Twitter (Xetra: A1W6XZ - news) shares fell 12% after-hours after the loss-making social network reported another quarter of slowing user growth.

The early investor reaction to its latest results followed the revelation that monthly active user numbers grew by 11% year-on-year in the third quarter of its financial year - down from a rate of 15% over the previous three months to total 320 million.

Twitter's revenues surged ahead - growing by 58% on the same period a year earlier to $569.2m - but its forecast for future earnings in the current quarter came in below analysts' expectations.

Chief executive Jack Dorsey - who returned to the role this month following the departure of Dick Costolo - has already acted to limit costs by cutting more than 330 jobs .

The number of employees affected - mostly engineers - totalled 8% of the workforce.

Mr Dorsey said today: "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."

He is under pressure to secure value for investors who have never seen a profit in Twitter's near-decade-long history.

Twitter lost $132m during the company's third quarter, with the total now at around $2bn.