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IN PHOTO: People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken in Warsaw September 27, 2013. Twitter Inc, the eight-year-old online messaging service, gave potential investors their first glance at its financials on Thursday when it publicly filed its IPO documents, setting the stage for one of the most-anticipated debuts in over a year. Picture taken September 27. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

Despite recording better than expected second quarter revenue and earnings, Twitter’ co-founder Jack Dorsey is unhappy with the growth of the social media platform’s active users. The company posted a revenue of $686.22 million (US$502 million) this morning, a 61 percent increase year-on-year, surpassing its expected revenue of $662.98 million (US$485 million).

Dorsey said he was “not satisfied” with users growth, which reached 316 million, according to the company’s second quarter report. The growth was only a minor increase from the first quarter, which reached 308 million, and Dorsey says the firm has to work harder to make people realise the potential of the brand.

“In order to realise Twitter’s full potential, we must improve in three key areas: ensure more disciplined execution, simplify our service to deliver Twitter's value faster, and better communicate that value,” he said in the company's report.

According to the BBC, Dorsey believes people aren’t clear of why they should be using Twitter, despite the platform having tremendous brand value. He claimed that the bulk of new active users came from the social network's SMS fast followers - people who sign up exclusively for text alerts but who don't bother about opening or maintaining a Twitter account. If these active users are excluded from Q2's user growth, the growth count rose by just 0.7 percent compared to the previous quarter.

Anthony Noto, Twitter’s chief financial officer, suggested that the firm would start campaigning to help people understand why using Twitter is important. He also promised to redesign the site to make it simpler and easier for users. However, he believes that a “considerable period of time” would be needed to create sustained meaningful growth of mass market audience.

MCH analyst James Cakmak told the BBC that both Twitter executives were "extremely candid", adding that they were turning their focus to a more strategic direction, which was previously missing. However, Cakmak feels that the change came after investors expressed dissatisfaction with the user growth.

With results starting to come up, the investors were initially happy as the shares rose over 6 percent in after-hours trading, but sentiments changed when it dropped by 6 percent, trading at $46.89 (US$34.24m) shortly afterwards. Meanwhile, Twitter reported a total loss of $187.60 million (US$137m), which was lower than expected.

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