Twitter earnings boosted by major sports broadcasts

Coverage of major football and baseball games in the US helped Twitter generate better-than-expected sales and profits in the third quarter.

The social network said revenue jumped 29% to $758m in the period, beating analyst estimates.

But its total number of users declined as it closed "spammy and suspicious" accounts, and it forecast further falls.

The results sent shares in the company up by 15%.

In the last few years, the social network has found it hard to maintain growth in the face of intense competition from rivals such as Facebook and Instagram.

It has also struggled to convince advertisers that its messaging platform is the best forum for their campaigns.

But in the three months to 30 September, advertising revenue jumped by a third, boosted by advertiser interest in live broadcasts, a relatively new area for the platform.

During the period, Twitter streamed Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer games, as well as concerts in partnership with Live Nation.

In July, shares in the firm dived 20% after it reported a fall in monthly active users. It has fallen further since then.

For the third quarter, it posted another fall to 326 million users, blaming efforts to remove suspicious accounts, including those used for political influence.

It has faced intense pressure to clean up the platform after it emerged that Russia and Iran had used it to influence foreign election campaigns.

However, analysts have warned that the firm needs to bolster user growth so it can better compete for ad spending with rivals.

Usage has been stagnant for more than a year, although this has been offset by increases in advertising revenue as the company generates more cash per user.