Facebook reports that its quarterly profit nearly doubled as the world’s leading social network continued to add users, notching up numbers that would have been unbelievable a decade ago.
Facebook said it made $US802 million ($A867.73 million) in profit for shareholders on revenue of $US3.2 billion in the quarter that ended on September 30, while the number of monthly active users grew to 1.35 billion worldwide.
“This has been a good quarter with strong results,” Facebook founder and chief Mark Zuckerberg said in a release on Tuesday.
“We continue to focus on serving our community well and continue to invest in connecting the world over the next decade.”
About 1.12 billion people on average connected with Facebook in September using smartphones or tablet computers in a 29 per cent increase from the same month a year earlier, according to the earnings report.
Facebook took in $US2.96 billion from advertising during the quarter, with approximately two-thirds of that revenue coming from marketing messages served up on mobile devices.
“We feel like we’re performing well by every measure,” Facebook Chief Financial Officer Dave Wehner told analysts.
The numbers look good; Facebook added 33 million more monthly active users in the quarter, taking it to a total of 1.35 billion (mobile, tablet and PC), meaning almost half the Internet-connected world now logs on at least once a month.
Growth in its daily active users rose by 35 million from three months earlier, the highest jump in that rate since the second quarter of 2013.
Analysts said that number means 64 per cent of Facebook’s users log in daily.
Facebook, therefore, has daily access to one third of the internet-connected world.
Stay informed, daily
Another social media phenomenon, Twitter, isn’t doing as well.
The short-form product’s results were released Tuesday and showed signs again of slowing user growth, spooking shareholders who sent the stock down nearly 10 per cent on Tuesday.
Facebook has more than four times the monthly users than Twitter.
Facebook shares, which have been near record levels in recent days, dipped one per cent to $US79.99 in electronic trades after the news.
Want to see more stories from InDaily SA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily SA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily SA". That's it.
