Canada's Shopify posts smaller-than-expected third-quarter loss

(Reuters) - Canadian e-commerce software maker Shopify Inc reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss on Wednesday as more merchants used its software platform to set up and manage online stores. Merchants use Shopify's software platform to design, set up and manage their stores across sales channels including the web, mobile devices, social media and brick-and-mortar outlets. The company's clients include Procter & Gamble Co, Tesla Motors Inc and the New York Stock Exchange. Revenue from Shopify's merchant solution business more than doubled to $49.7 million in the third quarter ended Sept. 30. Shopify gets a bulk of its merchant solutions revenue from fees that it charges its clients, or merchants, when their customer orders are processed through Shopify's payment system. Revenue in the company's subscription business, which makes money from the fees Shopify's clients pay to use its platform, rose 68.6 percent to $49.8 million. The company raised its full-year revenue forecast, for the third time this year, to $379 million-$381 million from $361 million-$367 million. For the current quarter, Shopify estimates revenue of $120 million-$122 million. Shopify tightened its full-year operating loss estimate to $38 million-$40 million from $37 million-$41 million. The company forecast operating loss of $10 million-$12 million for the fourth quarter. The company's net loss widened to $9.1 million in the third quarter, from $4.7 million a year earlier. On a per-share basis, the net loss attributable to shareholders increased to 11 cents from 6 cents. Operating expenses jumped 87.5 percent, while cost of revenue rose nearly 96 percent. Excluding items, Shopify reported a loss of 2 cents per share, smaller than the average analysts' estimate of 3 cents, according Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Ottawa-based Shopify, which went public in May last year, said revenue rose 88.6 percent to $99.6 million, beating the analysts' average estimate of $94.8 million. (The story was refiled to fix the Reuters Instrument Code in paragraph 1) (Reporting by Anet Josline Pinto in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Martina D'Couto)