Facebook Reports Stellar Set of Q4 Results

The company’s total revenue rose to $5.84bn (£4.10bn) from $3.85bn (£2.7bn) a year earlier, with ad revenue increasing 56.8 per cent during the Christmas holiday shopping period, when spending on advertising normally peaks.

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.

The social network released its earnings for its fourth quarter and all of 2015 on Wednesday, revealing in a presentation that it makes an average of $3.73 off of each user around the world.

The company also said that 80% of its advertising revenue in that period came from mobile advertising, up from 69% a year earlier. “We continue to invest in better serving our community, building our business, and connecting the world”.

Mobile daily users gained about 25 percent to 934 million on average for December, while mobile monthly users increased 21 percent to 1.44 billion. CEO Mark Zuckerberg was asked on the call whether Facebook would launch a stand-alone video app, but was noncommittal about it, only saying that there were “additional opportunities” for Facebook and standalone apps.

Wall Street had expected Facebook report a profit of $0.68 per share on revenue of $5.37 billion for the quarter, according to a survey of analysts conducted by Thomson Reuters.

Zuckerberg said during an earnings call that he is happy with pre-orders for Rift, which was priced at $599, but did not disclose specifics.

Once the report came out, the news lifted Facebook’s stocks to $101.23 (AU$143.63) in extended trading, reports The Australian. The social networking giant is already looking to experiment in different areas, including virtual reality and drones. Besides, more than half of Facebook’s users only access the site or the app on mobile devices. And this figure was up more than 50% on a year ago.

“If you’re an advertiser and you want to reach mass scale, you only have two options: Facebook and Google”, James Cakmak, an analyst at Monness Crespi Hardt & Co., was quoted as saying. The like button will remain but users will be able to express more precise emotions with the “reactions”.

Facebook also topped expectations with regards to earnings.