Facebook’s stock has risen by nearly nine per cent in after hours trading, after the social network unveiled revenue of $5.8bn (£4.1bn) for the three months to the end of December – and $17.9bn for 2015. Mobile also continues to be the main way most people browse the world’s most popular social network, with 1.44 billion people using Facebook on a monthly basis.
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Mobile-only MAUs are defined as users who accessed Facebook exclusively through mobile apps or mobile versions of our website, or used our Messenger app, in the last 30 days of the given quarter. “Our community continued to grow and our business is thriving”, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO, said in the company’s earnings release.
“Even as the world has tended to greater openness over time, in many communities we see greater fear over what a connected world and more progress means for them”, Zuckerberg said. After free cash flow of United States dollars 2.14 billion in the quarter, Facebook ended 2015 with USD 18.43 billion in total cash. That’s key because, as we pointed out this morning, Facebook’s user growth is slowing and it needs to show that it can keep making more money off the same size user base.
Advertising revenue growth is likely to be driven by an increase in average price per ad and higher user engagement.
The company’s total revenue rose to $US5.84 billion ($8.3 billion) from $US3.85 billion a year earlier, with ad revenue increasing 56.8 per cent to $US5.64 billion in the holiday shopping period, when spending on advertising typically spikes. The launch is an important step towards the future and we’re really looking forward to seeing how people use it’. Facebook earned 54 cents a share, surpassing the 42 cents a share expected during that period.
Advertising made up the bulk of Facebook’s revenue, growing by 57 percent to $5.6 billion.
For comparison, Twitter said it had 307 million monthly active users in its most recent quarterly earnings report. The company had revenue of $4.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.36 million.
In January, Facebook-owned Oculus started taking pre-orders for its virtual reality head sets and the first shipments are scheduled for March.
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Mobile DAUs were 934 million, up 25 percent year over year.
