With many expecting Twitter to disappoint yet again after several quarters in which the company's stock had a step-down reaction to earnings, moments ago TWTR beat virtually all-non-GAAP estimates, from revenue, to EPS, to EBITDA:

More importantly, everyone was focusing on user growth which on a headline basis was not bad…

However, just like on previous quarters, TWTR decided to use a gimmick when counting users, to wit:

“Average Monthly Active Users (MAUs) were 316 million for the second quarter, up 15% year-over-year, and compared to 308 million in the previous quarter. The vast majority of MAUs added in the quarter on a sequential basis came from SMS Fast Followers. Excluding SMS Fast Followers, MAUs were 304 million for the second quarter, up 12% year-over-year, and compared to 302 million in the previous quarter.”

It took algos a few minutes to digest this fact, and as a result what was initially a solid 10% spike after hours, fizzled almost entirely, and as of this moment the stock had cut its after hours gains notably.

Going back to the quarter, the non-GAAP numbers were generally not bad as follows.

But are they good enough to justify a $25 billion market cap, especially when one remembers that virtually all the “profit” is in solidly in the non-GAAP arena.