Micro-blogging website Twitter has informed a net loss of $645m (£396m) for 2013, just three months after its initiation on the New York Stock Exchange.
The loss was estimated by analysts, who highlighted Twitter’s revenues, which rose 110% last year to grasp $665m.
But a reported dawdling growth in user numbers was a greater apprehension for investors.
Twitter averaged 241 million monthly users in the last quarter of the year, up just 3.8% on the earlier quarter.
That denotes a slowdown associated with a growth rate of 10% seen at the commencement of 2013.
Timeline views were down nearly 7%, suggesting users were refreshing their feeds less often.
Shares fell as much as 12% in after-hours trading on Wednesday.
Nate Elliott, an analyst at research firm Forrester, told AFP: “If you don’t have an engaged user base, you don’t have a business. They have got to do better on users, that is the entire story.”
Advertising revenue growth
Twitter’s share price had more than doubled in value since the company was floated on the stock market in November, when it was valued at around $18bn.
But opinion has been divided on whether the company can provide returns to investors.
For the last three months of 2013, Twitter said it made a net loss of $511m but on revenues that more than doubled to $243m.
Twitter said it was improving its “overall user experience” by launching enhancements like custom timelines, and the ability to send and receive photos via direct message.
But it also sworn to continue to improve its services to advertisers in the hope of growing revenues further.
Twitter brings in money largely by selling advertising space and data on tweeting habits.
More than 90% of its revenues in the last quarter came from advertising, where advertisers pay to have their tweets promoted and appear in users’ feeds.
Three-quarters of advertising income comes from mobile platforms like smartphones, the company said.
Courtesy: BBC News
