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Facebook shares rise after first-quarter revenue beat

Mobile advertising again drove much of the upside in the first quarter, with mobile revenue at 85 percent of total ad revenue, up from 82% a year ago.

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Following its first-quarter earnings report, the company said it expects revenue growth to be down “meaningfully” after it stops increasing the frequency of marketing spots in the news feed later this year to avoid driving away users.

Facebook announced that it is no longer reporting non-GAAP figures, however, so it’s understandable that many people were initially dismayed by Facebook’s $1.04 in per-share earnings … but that beat the GAAP figure of 87 cents by a mile.

WhatsApp’s Status feature boasts approximately 175 million users, Facebook said on Wednesday during a conference call with analysts and investors following the release of the company’s impressive Q1 2017 financials.

The Facebook founder said they have a lot more work to build a global community that works for everyone. Net income rose to US$3.06 billion, or US$1.04 a share, topping the 87-cent average estimate compiled by Bloomberg.

Next quarter, Facebook is expected to reach the milestone of 2 billion monthly active users after adding 80 million in the first quarter for a total of 1.94 billion. “By the end of 2016, Facebook had more than doubled its number to almost $5 per MAU in advertising revenue”. With over 600 million users, Instagram is now set to join the company’s other billion-plus platforms – Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp.The company is also aggressively working on monetizing its subsidiaries, Messenger, Oculus and WhatsApp.

“We’re going to keep putting video at the center of all of these services”, Zuckerberg said during the earnings report. Facebook’s revenue growth marked an increase of 49 per cent year-over-year.

Ampere Research Manager Tony Maroulis concludes: “As Facebook continues to invest in video and its ARPU increases, it is conceivable that in the not-too-distant future an average Facebook user will be worth more than an average TV viewer in terms of advertising”.

He has also developed tools to monitor brands’ early adoption of live-streaming apps, compare Yahoo’s and Google’s search designs and examine the NFL’s YouTube and Facebook video strategies.

This quarter, Facebook’s ad revenue growth was driven by higher ad pricing, though Devitt notes the impressive growth is expected to lessen as Facebook scales back its ad load. “That’s why they are spending so much money there”, Williamson said. Earlier Wednesday, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg pledged to hire 3,000 more content reviewers over the next year so inappropriate material is removed from the site more quickly.

Facebook, Inc is focused on building products that enable people to connect and share through mobile devices, personal computers and other surfaces. That’s up from 1.86 billion in the previous quarter and 1.65 billion in the same quarter a year earlier.

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MENLO PARK, Calif. – May 3, 2017 – Facebook, Inc. today reported financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2017.

Facebook shares rise after first-quarter revenue beat