The company’s total revenue rose to $5.84 billion from $3.85 billion a year earlier, with ad revenue increasing 56.8 percent to $5.64 billion in the holiday shopping period, when spending on advertising typically spikes. Overall the company had 1.59 billion monthly active users in December 2015, representing growth of 14 percent against the previous year.
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Mobile ad revenue accounted for 80% of total ad revenue in the quarter compared with 69% a year earlier.
“I’m excited about our progress and the chance to build something great for the future”, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told analysts in a conference call on Wednesday.
“We continue to invest in better serving the community, building our business, and connecting the world”.
Facebook’s strong quarter contrasted with a disappointing performance by Apple Inc, which is worth about US$519bil (RM2.14tril), making it the most valuable U.S. company. He also mentioned the company’s controversial “Free Basics” program, which allows users in developing countries to access the Internet for free – but only the parts that are part of a Facebook Internet bundle.
Advertising came in at $5.6 billion for the quarter, also beating the $5.2 billion predicted by analysts, and up 57 percent from $3.6 billion from Q4 2014. Looking at monthly active users, Facebook grew by just under three per cent over the quarter to 1.59bn, with the fastest growth occurring in the Asia-Pacific, South American and African markets. In a symbolic move, General Motors famously pulled its entire million+ Facebook advertising budget because it couldn’t measure how their sales would directly benefit from a social media presence.
The stock price of Facebook (NYSE:FB) surged more than 12% to $105.90 per share during the extended trading on Wednesday, January 27. Facebook still has many untapped revenue drivers at its disposal.
Facebook has also been pushing to get more revenue from global markets – especially in Asia, where executives spent more time in recent months, and where Instagram now advertises. Facebook has the number one mobile app in the United States in terms of audience reach, according to comScore, and it has been that way since the metrics firm began reporting on app usage.
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But the company’s earnings results also showed that the average revenue per user (ARPU) is also on the rise.
