Twitter said on Thursday it hopes to post its first-ever profit by the end of the year, delivering a stronger-than-expected update which sent its shares flying higher.
Shares in Twitter leapt 14% in early trade to $19.68 on the back of investor optimism at its third quarter results -- even though the firm posted ongoing losses and a dip in revenue.
While the social network, which has struggled to keep pace with rivals, posted a loss of $21mn in the third quarter, it was a marked improvement from the $103mn deficit it racked up a year ago.
Likewise, while revenues fell 4% over a year to $590mn, the results were not as bad as analysts had feared for the one-to-many messaging platform.
"Our work to increase relevance and make Twitter easier is making an impact," claimed chief executive Jack Dorsey as the results were announced.
While Twitter has built a solid core base of celebrities, politicians and journalists, it has failed to achieve the broader appeal of Facebook and other social platforms, hurting its ability to bring in ad revenues.
But the network has stepped up efforts to boost its user base and engagement, notably with some 30 video partnerships, as part of its turnaround efforts.
In a statement, Twitter said it would "likely" show its first net profit in the fourth quarter if growth reaches the high end of its target.
'Enabling more voices'  
Twitter's monthly active user base rose slightly to 330 million, roughly in line with forecasts. And Twitter said daily active users rose 14% from last year. The number of US monthly active users grew 4% to 69 million, and international users increased by the same ratio to 261 million.
Dorsey said Twitter was seeking to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to make the most relevant content stand out more prominently, following the example of Facebook.
"Our biggest efforts are really applying machine learning and deep learning to every single tweet," he said, in order to "make sure that we're delivering what is something that matters to people."
Dorsey said Twitter is still studying the impact of a test to double its 140-character limit for tweets and would make a decision in the coming weeks on the next step.
"I want to make sure that we are maintaining our sense of brevity, make sure that we are maintaining our sense of real time and showing what's happening in the world," he said.
"We want to make sure that we're also enabling more voices to speak and not be frustrated by the constraints."