Facebook posts strong 4Q as company closes gap with Google

The staggering metrics came as Facebook disclosed its monthly active users have soared to 1.59 billion, up from 1.55 billion three months earlier, while daily active users rose to 1.04 billion, from 1.01 billion in the same period.

Competitor Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) is scheduled to report earnings for the fourth quarter of 2015 on February 10, so user data for Twitter as of December is still not yet available.

In the fourth quarter, Facebook’s profits more than doubled to $1.56 billion from a year earlier.

Revenue increased by 44% to $17.93 billion, while operating income rose by 25% to $6.23 billion.

Shares jumped 8.7% in after-hours trading in NY on the better than expected results.

The company also reported that an astounding 80 percent of its ad revenue ($4.5 billion) was generated by mobile advertising.

In a statement, Facebook co-founder and CEO Marc Zuckerberg said, “Our community continues to grow and our business is thriving”.

Income from operations – Income from operations for the full year 2015 was $6.23 billion.

The strong revenue growth was supported by increased revenue per user, as the growth in the number of users slows. Back in Q1 2012, Facebook’s earning were a mere $0.32 per user in the “rest of world” segment.

“I think the results show that Facebook’s efforts over the last couple of years to really understand mobile have paid off”, he said.

The company, which has the world’s most popular smartphone app, has also been benefiting from a surge in video views that has attracted advertising dollars.

Capital expenditures – Capital expenditures for the fourth quarter of 2015 were $692 million.

Zuckerberg said users watch 100 million hours of video daily on the platform, and the company is “exploring ways to give people a dedicated place on Facebook for when they just want to watch videos”. Almost 500 million users are on Events, up from 450 million in July previous year.

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).