The world’s leading online social network reported a profit of US$1.56 billion in the final three months of 2015 as compared with making US$701 million in the same period a year earlier.
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Facebook’s 2015 fourth-quarter results particularly highlight the fact that the 52 percent year-on-year increase in the company’s revenue during the reporting quarter marks the first time that Facebook’s quarterly revenue has exceeded $5 billion.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, said in a statement that the effect has been dramatic.
Analysts were impressed by Facebook’s big surge following its quarterly financial report, as tech companies have been generally bearish amid a backdrop of global economic uncertainty and the continued strength of the greenback against foreign currencies. Facebook also notes that 80 percent of its ad revenue stems from mobile, an increase of 69 percent over a year ago.
Zuckerberg went on to discuss providing people with better tools for sharing content, improving Facebook’s capabilities to serve different communities and optimising the company’s services for people in developing countries.
The jump in shares was set to add almost $33 billion to Facebook’s market value, putting the company on track to re-enter the $300 billion club. More than a billion people now also use Facebook every single day.
The key monthly active users metric rose by 14% to 1.59 billion users. Of these users, 1.44 billion are mobile monthly active users. However, Bloomberg Business says Facebook rejected the idea because it was considered too negative.
Facebook’s stock rose 7.5 per cent in after-hours trading as a result of the earnings numbers. In many cases, the company has also been able to command higher prices for those ads, especially in North America, analysts and advertisers say. Nevertheless, social networking continues to be Facebook’s foundation.
Surging revenue and profit boosted Facebook shares almost 30% last year, briefly vaulting the 12-year-old company’s market capitalization above $300 billion before the recent market pullback. “More than 19 million who previously had no Internet access are now connected through Internet.Org”.
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Facebook shares soared more than 12 percent to $106 in after-market trades that followed release of the earnings figures.
