Twitter Reports Strong User Growth

Twitter reported surprisingly strong second-quarter user numbers and revenue, as it works to make the platform more user-friendly and eliminate robotic and fake accounts on its platform.

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On that front, the social media messaging service said instances of suspicious behavior and spam dropped by 18% during the quarter.

But Twitter’s push to cut down on fake accounts costs money, and its adjusted profit fell 36% to about $37 million, or 5 cents per share. At the same time, revenue surged 18%, to $841 million, better than the $829 million that Wall Street was looking for, according to a survey by FactSet.

In April, Twitter had forecast revenue of $770 million to $830 million for the quarter.

Twitter’s daily user base rose 14% to 139 million, an increase of 5 million users. Analysts were expecting 134.7 million daily users.

The revenue surge was due to higher advertising revenue. The company said it is on track to hire 20% more people than last year.