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Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo is to step down after coming under pressure following lacklustre results.
Mr Costolo will remain on the social networks board after the move on July 1, the company said on Thursday night.
Twitters shares jumped 7.8pc in after-hours trading following the announcement, after closing flat at $35.84 during the day.
Mr Costolo will be replaced in the interim by co-founder Jack Dorsey, chairman of Twitter and chief executive of Square, the mobile payments company he founded in 2009. He will also continue in both those roles.
However, he will not be paid for leading Twitter. The company's SEC filing on Thursday stated that Mr Dorsey had "agreed to forego any compensation for your role as interim chief executive officer".
He added on Thursday night that Mr Costolo's departure was his own decision and not related to the company's performance.
"I believe in the course the company is on," he told investors, adding that both internal and external candidates for the CEO position will be considered. "Were looking for someone who uses and loves the product in every single way."
Mr Dorsey was Twitter's chief executive and president from 2007 until 2008 but is now returning to lead a very different company.
Mr Costolo had been under pressure due to slowing user numbers, despite reporting 302m monthly active members in the first quarter, in line with expectations.
Revenues of $436m were up 74pc compared with 2014 but below its own forecast. Twitter, which has yet to make a profit since floating in November 2013, reported a loss of $162m, 23pc wider than a year earlier.
Full-year guidance was cut to between $2.17bn and $2.27bn, from the previous range of $2.3bn to $2.35bn.
Twitter lost a quarter of its value in April after the financial results were leaked while stock markets were still open.
The company's monthly user base will grow just 14.1pc this year, slowing from more than 30pc two years ago, according to research firm eMarketer. By 2019, its user growth rate will be just 6pc worldwide.
Despite the results revealing Twitter's weakest quarterly revenue growth as a publicly traded company, Mr Costolo defended the performance.
"It is still early days for these products, and we have a strong pipeline that we believe will drive increased value for direct response advertisers in the future," he said in a statement accompanying the earnings.
