Twitter jumps 16pc as profits treble to £147m

TWITTER shares have surged 16pc after the social networking company’s profits tripled to £147m.

The bumper earnings surprised analysts, with daily users also rising to 134m.

It came after a series of changes to the online platform and promises from founder Jack Dorsey to tackle hate speech and abuse.

In the UK, internet companies such as Twitter, Google and Facebook face regulation amid concerns about ‘ online harms’. Twitter yesterday said that it was making better use of algorithms to detect toxic content but humans still had the final say over what was taken down.

Dorsey added: ‘ What we’ve been focusing on is detection of abuse and harassment on our service, any content that violates our terms of service.

‘ We’re taking the burden away from the victims of abuse and harassment and we’re making the agents that we have working on this process much more effective. We expect to continue to make steady progress.’

Twitter, which makes most of its money from advertising, said sales rose 18pc to £607m in the first three months of 2019, beating predictions of around £597m.

Profits rose to £147m, compared to £47m during the same period last year, its sixth profitable quarter in a row after years of losses. The number of daily users rose from 126m at the end of the year. Shares rose towards $ 40, valuing it at £23bn, but still well below the high of $74.73 in late 2013.

The stock has been battered amid concerns over user numbers and doubts about its plans to become profitable.

More recently it has been hit by fears that changes to clean up the platform and remove vast amounts of abusive content could sap cash from the business.