All eyes were on Twitter (TWTR) after the market closed today, as the social-media giant reported its fiscal 2014 first-quarter earnings results. For its second earnings announcement as a publicly traded company, Twitter posted breakeven earnings per share, better than the $0.03 loss Wall Street was expecting. Revenue was $250 million in the quarter, up 119% from $114 million during the same period a year ago. That also topped analyst estimates for quarterly revenue of $241.5 million.
Perhaps, more importantly, Twitter said its average monthly users increased 25% to 255 million in the period. This is a key figure for the social-media company as it attempts to keep pace with fast growing rivals in the space, such as Facebook. Advertising revenue grew 125% year over year to $226 million in the quarter, while revenue from mobile advertising accounted for roughly 80% of that figure. "We now reach more than 1 billion iOS and Android users each month, making us one of the largest in-app mobile ad exchanges in the world and the only one at scale to offer native in-app advertising," said Dick Costolo, Twitter's chief executive.
However, the strong results weren't enough to lift the stock in after hours trading. Shares of Twitter were down nearly 10% at $42.62 per share as of 4:29 p.m. ET on the news.
