Twitter saw its shares surge 17 per cent after the micro-blogging platform reported revenue of $758 million in the third quarter, with monthly active users (MAUs) reaching 326 million.

Twitter revenue was up 29 per cent (year-over-year) and advertising revenue reached $650 million.

“We’re achieving meaningful progress in our efforts to make Twitter a healthier and valuable everyday service,” said Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey in a statement late on Thursday.

“We’re doing a better job detecting and removing spammy and suspicious accounts at sign-up. We’re also continuing to introduce improvements that make it easier for people to follow events, topics and interests on Twitter,” he added.

The total ad engagements increased 50 per cent (year-over-year) and international revenue hit $335 million — an increase of 30 per cent (year-over-year).

“This quarter’s strong results prove we can prioritize the long-term health of Twitter while growing the number of people who participate in public conversation,” said Dorsey.

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Average daily active users (DAU) increased nine per cent year-over-year, compared to 14 per cent in the same period the previous year.

“Our third quarter results reflect our success with advertisers, delivering revenue growth of 29 per cent and better than expected growth across most products and geographies,” said Ned Segal, Twitter’s CFO.

Twitter loses 9 million users

Twitter has lost nine million users during the third quarter of the current fiscal, its worst quarterly decline ever.

The social network revealed the drop in its earnings report on Thursday and acknowledged that it had anticipated losing around five million users during the period, Fortune reported.

The micro-blogging platform now has 326 million active users.

Twitter said that its user drop was due in part to the company clamping down on accounts that disseminate spam or use automated bots to try to target legitimate users.

Many micro-blogging platform users reported that their follower counts had dropped considerably during one of Twitter’s purges.

Despite the user loss, the micro-blogging platform had a strong quarter, as revenue jumped 29 per cent (year-over-year) to $758.1 million.

The company expects its user base to continue to shrink as it purges more accounts.

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