NEW YORK, UNITED STATES: Twitter reported a sharp downfall in quarterly revenue growth on Thursday and said it would cut 9% of its global workforce. The service said its user-base ticked up 3% to 317 million average monthly active users in the third quarter from 313 million in the second quarter. Analysts on average had expected 316.3 million monthly active users, according to FactSet StreetAccount – a market research firm. Twitter has been struggling to sign up new users amid competition from nimbler rivals such as Instagram and Snapchat. Revenue rose about 8% to $616 million – beating its own forecast of $590 million to $610 million. The company – which last month hired bankers to field acquisition offers but major companies did not bid – reported a 20% rise in revenue in the previous quarter.