Facebook quarterly profit doubles as user ranks grow

Facebook has announced its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2015 and also its full results for 2015.

Total revenue rose to $5.84 billion from $3.85 billion a year earlier, with ad revenue increasing 56.8 per cent to $5.64 billion in the holiday shopping period, when spending on advertising typically spikes. It also reported 1.59 billion monthly users, up 14 per cent over past year.

Approximately 80 percent of the company’s advertising revenue last quarter came from ads on mobile devices. “Our community continued to grow and our business is thriving”, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. “In 2016 and beyond, we’re going to continue…serving our community, working to bring connectivity to billions of people who’re not yet connected, and building new technologies that give people more ways to express themselves”.

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

Facebook shares closed at US$109.11 (RM451), putting its market capitalisation at about US$308.6bil (RM1.27tril).

Facebook’s strong quarter contrasted with a disappointing performance by Apple Inc, which is worth about US$519bil (RM2.14tril), making it the most valuable United States company.

At least 22 brokerages raised price targets on Facebook’s stock, with most analysts focusing on a far better-than-expected the 81 percent jump in revenue from mobile ads.

Joining a crowded ad network marketplace, Facebook first launched the Facebook Audience Network, or FAN, in mid-2014. With FAN, the social giant offered its publishing and mobile app developer partners the promise of targeting registered Facebook users wherever they go. Capital expenditures for the fourth quarter of 2015 were $692 million.

If you happen to live in Europe, including the United Kingdom, you’re only worth one-third of a North American to Facebook, at $4.5o every three months, while the “rest of the world”, which includes most developing nations are only worth $1.22 per user. The social network also managed to generate $5.8 billion United States dollars in revenue. The figure is more than China’s population, of 1.3 billion people. “Facebook and Instagram have become the two most important mobile advertising platforms”. Google’s share shrank from 32 percent in 2014 to 30 percent past year.