Twitter last night reported its first quarter with no growth in users since it went public, stoking fresh concerns on how long it will take for the company to reverse the trend.
The stalled growth in the average number of active monthly users came despite a series of changes to make Twitter easier and more engaging.
While the company said it is taking additional steps - including launching changes to the timeline of tweets - it told investors not to expect immediate results.
"Our work will take time" before the company can create long-term shareholder value, the company's executive chairman Omid Kordestani on a call with analysts.
Twitter shares fell in after-hours trading as its revenue forecast for the current quarter missed analysts' expectations.
The company's share price has declined more than 50% since Jack Dorsey, one of the founders, returned to Twitter in July. They closed up 4% at $14.98 in regular trade last night on Wall Street.
The microblogging service forecast first-quarter revenue of between $595m and $610m, well below the average analyst estimate of $627.1m, according to Thomson Reuters.
Twitter said in a filing it had 320 million average monthly active users in the quarter, unchanged from the third quarter and lagging a forecast for 323 million users.
But Dorsey said that monthly active usage in January "has bounced back to Q3 levels."
Facing slowing user growth, Twitter has been experimenting under Dorsey, who became interim CEO in July and then CEO in October, to make its website more engaging.
The change to the timeline made yesterday is the most dramatic since his return. Twitter is altering the way it displays tweets on its home page - customising them to individual users.
The change is designed to appeal to advertisers by giving more prominence to tweets that advertisers pay for, but it is not clear whether the new timeline will work.
