Wednesday 22 April 2015 5:12 pm

Facebook earnings show mobile accounts for 75 per cent of all revenue

The Figures

Facebook's revenue rose just short of analysts' expectations in the first quarter, jumping by 42 per cent from a year ago to $3.54bn (£2.35bn) from $2.5bn a year ago as advertisers' valuation of the social media platform continue to grow and users keep signing up.

The number of monthly active users on the social media network climbed by 13 per cent to 1.44bn with those also on mobile not far behind at 1.24bn. Unlike sales figures, which showed a slight dip from the fourth quarter as the holiday season died down, user figures grew at a faster rate – up by 3.6 per cent compared to 3.18 per cent at the end of last year.

Earnings per share beat analysts' expectations of $0.40 per share, coming in at $0.42 per share as the company's stock held fairly steady in after-hours trading.

The social media company, who make over 50 per cent of their revenue outside of the US, was hampered by a strengthening dollar – excluding negative exchange rates revenue would have risen by 49 per cent.

Less pleasing to investors will have been a 20 per cent fall in net income to $512m as capital expenditures hit $502m and costs rose 83 per cent to $2.6bn.

Why it's interesting

Mobile advertising is the future. That's the message that rings out loud and clear from these results. As mobile users increased 23 per cent from a year ago, mobile revenue hit all-time highs and now accounts for 73 per cent of all the company's revenue – an increase on 59 per cent last year.

Simon Bailey, chief executive at mobile advertising exchange Axonix, said the results demonstrated that Facebook was "increasingly focusing its advertising strategy and campaign delivery around mobile engagement", and had recognises "mobile is where the money is, which others remarkably still may not, with many still investing too little time on how to optimise their own users' mobile ad experiences".

Also of interest is a new "Hello" feature added to its messaging app – displaying a caller's personal info (name, photo etc) even if you don't have that person's number.