Facebook to expand beyond its ‘like’ button ‘pretty soon’

Menlo Park, California State, United States of America ( Agencies + DIPLOMAT.SO)- You may not realize it, but Facebook is making more off you now than ever.

Facebook, Inc reported financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2015.

Analysts had expected the company to report 1.58 billion monthly active users, with 1.43 billion accessing the service through smartphones and tablets, according to market research firm FactSet StreetAccount.

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

Although Facebook shares were down 3 percent during regular trading, closing at $94.45, the company’s earnings results, announced after the close of trading, buoyed its stock price after hours. That is largely thanks to an increase in mobile and video views – an impressive statistic, considering that both are relatively new ventures for Facebook. Excluding certain expenses, Facebook reported earnings of 79 cents compared with the 68 cents analysts expected.

Although many Facebook users have long wished for a “dislike” button to be added to the site, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has expressed concern in the past that the button would convey too much negativity. Facebook’s revenue in the past quarter represented a 52 per cent increase from the same time a year ago. Oculus VR plans to start shipping its $US599 Rift virtual-reality headset in March.

Facebook said it had 1.59 billion monthly active users at the end of the year, up 14% from the end of 2014.

“Everything we hear from agencies and marketers is positive”, said eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson. Our community continued to grow and our business is thriving.

So all this is pretty good news for Facebook. After all, when it went public in 2004, Google was still smaller than Yahoo.

What’s happening to Apple now is what ailed IBM, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard before it: trouble maintaining breakneck growth in established markets popular with consumers and businesses while investing (betting?) on the next big things that are just a product cycle or two away. Facebook snapped up Instagram for $1 billion in 2012.