Facebook quarterly profit soars, lifted by mobile ads
AFP
AFP, SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook on Wednesday delivered another blockbuster earnings performance, showing solid growth in mobile ad revenues as the social network expands into new services.
While Facebook topped Wall Street expectations in the quarter, shares dove more than eight percent to $116.54 after an earnings call during which executives warned that revenue growth should be more tempered next year and that the company planned to invest heavily in engineers and data-centers for long-term goals.
People were expecting them to hit it out of the park, and it is hard to sustain that, Silicon Valley analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group said of the market reaction to what appeared to be a stellar earnings report.
Profit leapt 166 percent to $2.4 billion on revenue that surged to $7 billion from $4.5 billion during the same period a year earlier, third quarter results showed.
We had another good quarter, Facebook co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in the earnings release.
Were making progress putting video first across our apps and executing our 10 year technology roadmap.
Zuckerberg has laid out a long-term vision for Facebook that includes virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and even providing internet service to remote areas using self-flying drones. Facebooks third quarter earnings results displayed strong top-line momentum and improved profitability, Baird Equity Research said in a note to investors.
The social network had an average of 1.79 billion monthly users as of the end of September in a 16 percent jump from a year earlier, according to the earnings report. The number of people accessing Facebook from mobile devices monthly climbed 20 percent to 1.66 million.
Revenue from mobile advertising accounted for about 84 percent of the ad money taken in by Facebook during the quarter, up from 78 percent during the same three-month period last year, according to the social network.
