Twitter chief technology officer leaving

Adam Messinger had been with Twitter for five years, most recently heading engineering and products.

"I've decided to leave Twitter and take some time off," Messinger said in a tweet, not specifying his plans for the future.

Twitter vice president of product Josh McFarland also put out word on Tuesday that he is leaving the company, with plans to join Greylock Partners venture capital firm in Silicon Valley.

San Francisco-based Twitter has been striving to boost its ranks of users and revenue.

In an email reply to an AFP inquiry, Twitter said it is "taking steps to streamline and flatten the organization by elevating our engineering, product and design functions, with each area now reporting directly to" co-founder and chief executive Jack Dorsey.

Twitter announced the departure of chief operating officer Adam Bain last month, just weeks after reporting job cuts and a disappointing fiscal quarter.

Twitter reported a net loss for the third quarter ended September 30 of $103m, compared with a $132m loss a year earlier. Revenues meanwhile grew eight percent year-over-year to $616m, most of that from advertising.

The key metric of monthly active users rose only modestly to 317 million from 313 million in the prior quarter -- a growth pace that has prompted concerns over Twitter's ability to keep up in the fast-moving world of social media.

The announced job cuts amounted to about 350 positions based on the Twitter website's headcount of 3,860 employees worldwide.

Twitter said the restructuring "is intended to create greater focus and efficiency to enable Twitter's goal of driving toward (net) profitability in 2017."

Analysts however remain skeptical about Twitter's outlook for expansion, expressing concerns about its ability to entice users beyond its core base.

Source: AFP