Twitter loses one-fifth of its market value on weak user numbers

Twitter shares lost more than 20 percent of their value on Friday, its second-biggest loss since going public in 2013. 

The social-media service reported weak user numbers on Friday morning, a day after Facebook suffered the biggest one-day loss in U.S. market history because of slowing growth. Shares of Twitter plunged $8.83, or 20.6 percent, to $34.12. 

Twitter's wipeout mirrors Facebook's historic decline, which erased $119 billion of value from the social-media giant after it reported disappointing results. Both companies face similar issues involving fake accounts, charges of information manipulation by governments and individuals, and rising concern about their impact on society. 

"We want people to feel safe freely expressing themselves and have launched new tools to address problem behaviors that distort and distract from the public conversation," CEO Jack Dorsey said in the company's Friday earnings statement. 

Twitter said its number of monthly users dropped by 1 million, and the company said that count could continue to sink. 

Twitter reported second-quarter net income of $100.1 million, after reporting a loss in the same period a year earlier. That marks the third consecutive profitable quarter for the company. 

On a per-share basis, the San Francisco-based company said it had net income of 13 cents. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were 17 cents per share.

The results matched Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 16 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was also for earnings of 17 cents per share.

Revenue was $710.5 million in the period, which beat Street forecasts. Twelve analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $700 million.

Before Friday's rout, Twitter shares had risen 79 percent since the beginning of the year.