Still, in its fourth quarter, Facebook made more than $1 billion in profit and $5.8 billion in revenue.
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Mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 80 per cent of advertising revenue for the fourth quarter of 2015, up from 69 per cent of advertising revenue in the fourth quarter of 2014, and 76 per cent in the previous quarter, according to Facebook.
Total revenue rose to $5.84 billion from $3.85 billion a year earlier, with ad revenue increasing 56.8 per cent to $5.64 billion in the holiday shopping period, when spending on advertising typically spikes.
At the news of Facebook’s big earnings upswing, shares boomed by more than 13 per cent. The company’s net value is now well in excess of $250 billion (as per the Telegraph).
Co-founder Mark Zuckerberg said of the results: “2015 was a great year for Facebook”.
Facebook ad revenue numbers continue to accelerate on a quarterly basis – and this is before it has even given serious consideration as to how it might monetise its next two billion users on Messenger and WhatsApp.
Net income for the quarter more than doubled compared with the year before to $1.56bn. Moreover, free cash flow was $2.14 billion.
Nothing much to say here, but Facebook is doing a lot better than Google+ when it comes to the number of users.
“We believe Facebook is well positioned to increase its share of digital ad spend as well as to help grow the overall category given its reach and effectiveness for advertisers”, Goldman Sachs analysts said in a broker note.
Although Facebook shares were down 3 percent during regular trading, closing at $94.45, the company’s earnings results, announced after the close of trading, buoyed its stock price after hours.
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This will come as no surprise given that Facebook had 1.44 billion monthly users on mobile devices in December 2015, an increase of 21 percent year on year. Also, Facebook reports that it has brought in $3.77 per user in Q4, up from the $3.43 analysts had been anticipating. Tune into the company’s conference call at 2pm PST to hear more about sales numbers, but don’t expect to hear anything about Oculus sales or Instagram advert revenue. With Twitter reporting slow user growth rate, Facebook is now more successful with Instagram on its board as well. That’s largely thanks to an increase in mobile and video views – an impressive statistic, considering both are relatively new ventures for Facebook.
