Twitter posts $132 million first quarter loss

Twitter yesterday posted a $132-million first quarter loss even as revenues increased sharply and the popular messaging platform expanded its user base.

According to the company, revenues were up 119 per cent from a year ago to $250 million, monthly active users increased to 255 million.

AFP reported chief executive Dick Costolo as saying the micro-blogging network had a very strong first quarter. He added, revenue growth accelerated on a year over year basis fueled by increased engagement and user growth.

He added, Twitter also continued to rapidly increase its reach and scale. He said that with the integration of the mobile advertising startup MoPub, the company now had over 1 billion iOS and Android users each month, making it one of the largest in-app mobile ad exchanges in the world and the only one at scale to offer native in-app advertising.

According its quarterly report, using a popular Wall Street measure excluding special items, Twitter essentially broke even on a per-share basis, according to.

However, investors thumbed down the results and Twitter's shares were more than 8 per cent down in after-hours electronic trades to $39.12.

The network said out of its 255 million users, 198 million were on mobile devices.

The company grossed advertising revenue of $226 million, an increase of 125 per cent over the past year, with mobile accounting for roughly 80 per cent of the total.

According to analysts, Twitter suffered a net loss in the first quarter due to stock-compensation costs, but the company's results exceeded Wall Street's expectations, thanks to a step increase in advertising revenue.

According to Twitter, it had a loss of $132.4 million, or 23 cents per share, in the January-March quarter, which compared with a loss of $27 million, or 21 cents per share, a year ago, when the company was still privately held.

Adjusted earnings stood at $183,000, or roughly break-even on a per-share basis.

The San Francisco-based company's shares were down over 10 per cent, to $38.22, in after-hours trading after the results came out. The stock had closed 4.6 per cent up at $42.62.