Twitter’s net income went into freefall during the third quarter, as a double-digit rise in costs offset growth in the number of revenue generating users and associated sales.

In a statement, CEO Jack Dorsey pointed to a 17 per cent year-on-year rise in the number of money-making users, citing “ongoing product improvements” including revisions designed to simplify content discovery. It ended the quarter with 145 million daily active users, with domestic numbers up 13 per cent and international 18 per cent higher.

Dorsey highlighted progress in the company’s “ability to proactively identify and remove abusive content”, noting more than half of tweets removed during the quarter were removed “without a bystander or first person report”.

The company has taken flak recently for its policies around content posted by world leaders, specifically a perceived lack of action on messages posted by US President Donald Trump.

Finances
CFO Ned Segal conceded the company faced challenges around its advertising revenue during the quarter, with the company focused on delivering “improved revenue products” moving forward.

However, it will continue to rely on advertising as its key revenue generator, alongside “investments to drive ongoing” growth in user numbers.

Advertising revenue of $702.2 billion was up 8 per cent, a far cry from the 21 per cent year-on-year growth registered in Q3 2018. Data licensing and other sectors generated $121.5 billion, contributing to a 9 per cent rise in total revenue to $824 billion in the recent quarter.

Net income of $36.5 million was well down on the $789 million booked in the comparable period of 2018. Twitter noted the latter number was boosted by a tax provision, but even when this was discounted the figure was still significantly higher than the recent period, at $106 million.