80% of Twitter use comes from mobile devices; key metric of Twitter use declines 7% in Q3

In releasing its third quarter earnings today, Twitter says that it currently has 284 million active users. 80% of Twitter accounts are tweeting from a mobile device. That means more than 227 million of Twitter users are using the service from a smartphone or tablet. Twitter had $361 million in revenue for the quarter with $320 million of that coming from advertising. That represents a 109% increase in ad revenue year-over-year. 85% of Twitter's ad revenue, or $272 million, is attributable to the mobile version of the 140 character messaging service.

Timeline views per user for the period, dropped 7% to 636 on a global basis. In the states, the average number of timeline views per user declined 6% to 774. Overall timeline views of 181 billion for the three months, failed to meet Wall Street expectations and led to an after-hours meltdown in the shares. After hours, Twitter's shares dropped over 10% and were trading at $43.38, down over $5 from Monday's closing price.

The company reported a net loss of 29 cents a share for the third quarter, an improvement from the 48 cents a share Twitter lost in the same period last year. For the current quarter, Twitter is forecasting revenue of $440 million to $450 million. No forecast of advertising revenue for the current quarter was released.

source: Twitter via Reuters