Twitter reports strong sales and a 23% increase in active users

Twitter sales more than doubled in the third quarter, rising by 114% to $361 million. The social media giant also reported a 23% increase in the number of active users.

According to Twitter, it attracted 13 million new monthly users in the quarter, meaning that the micro blogging platform now has a total of 284 million users.

Despite strong sales and an increase in active users, Twitter reported a loss of $175m for the period.

Shares of the company plummeted by 8% in after hours trading.

According to Dick Costolo, Twitter chief executive officer, it was a “very strong financial quarter”.

He said that he is confident in the company’s ability to “build the largest daily audience in the world,”

The company predicted fourth quarter sales of between $440 million to $450 million.

Some analysts say that they are disappointed with Twitter’s growth though, stating that it has failed to keep up with its social network rival Facebook.

Forrester Research analyst Nate Elliott, told the BBC:

“Their user growth is mildly encouraging, but I want to see better. Users is their key metric; they need to get people using the site everyday. Facebook is constantly giving people new reasons to come back to the site, Twitter needs to do more of that.”