Facebook Shares Soar as Mobile Drives Big Jump in Ad Sales

SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook smashed investors’ expectations with a 52% jump in quarterly revenue as it sold more ads targeted at a fast-growing number of mobile users, sending its shares sharply higher after hours. Mobile accounted for some 80 per cent of the network’s ad revenue in the quarter.

Google, which is now a part of the recently created Alphabet Inc., is definitely ahead with more than one billion users on its search engine, YouTube, and Android mobile devices.

“The annual census reveals that across the board in the United Kingdom, online spending levels are not where they need to be. On average, 25% of all United Kingdom media consumption is via mobile devices, yet only 10% of all ad spend goes on mobile”, she said. “Millions of people rallied to support Nepal after the quake, France after the Paris attacks and all those affected by the refugee crisis”, Zuckerberg said in a post on Facebook.

According to the disclosure on Wednesday, Facebook’s revenue in 2015 stood at U.S.$17.93 billion, up 44 percent over a year ago.

Fourth-quarter net income more than doubled to $1.56 billion, or 54 cents a share, from 701 million, or 25 cents, a year earlier.

Facebook’s fourth-quarter report released Wednesday provided the latest gauge of the company’s impressive strides.

Facebook finds itself in the position Apple has been in: Benefiting fabulously from a strong product mix, fiercely loyal customers and the dynamic management duo of CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg.

Facebook said it had 1.59 billion monthly active users as of 31 December, up 14 per cent from the end of 2014.

Facebook’s analysts and executives are now focusing more on how the company’s other investments are working.

Sandberg also spoke about expanding Facebook’s capabilities in real-time sharing, such as with its new Sports Stadium service, and how important it could be surrounding the upcoming USA election.

Accordng to Antoine de Kermel, European managing director of advertising firm TVTY, Sports Stadium is a “mouth-watering” prospect for advertisers that will build on the existing returns from Facebook over the next quarter.

By any measure mobile user growth or advertising revenue Facebook is proving to be the template for Silicon Valley success story in the face of a roiling worldwide economy. “We know video is leading the charge in terms of delivering premium, respectful ad formats and this is what is appealing to consumers”.

At the risk of alienating users, Facebook has also been far more willing to monetize its popular Instagram property.

The numbers will probably help justify all of the changes that Facebook has made to its platform a year ago – including the introduction of live video and collages, more tailored notifications, the ability to hide from an ex’s posts and a more powerful search tool.