Facebook posts $1.59 billion earnings, improved mobile
updated 06:38 pm EST, Wed January 30, 2013
More users on mobile than on desktop for first time
Facebook reported its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year that concluded in December 2012. The social network leader posted $1.59 billion in earnings, with 17 cents gained per share -- beating Wall Street's estimate of $1.53 billion. Despite the company's record-high earnings, it posted just $64 million in net income on the quarter. For the first time, the number of daily active users on Facebook mobile was greater than that on the desktop, with 157 million mobile users never having connected using a desktop.
Highlights from the earnings statement include $1.33 billion in revenue from advertising, representing 84 percent of its total revenue -- a 41 percent climb from the same quarter last year. Mobile revenue represented about 23 percent of revenue for the fourth quarter, up from 14 percent in the third quarter of 2012.
For this quarter, analysts expect improvement. Analyst Aaron Kessler from Raymond James estimated mobile advertising would rise to more than 25 percent. "They’re experimenting a lot with ad formats, not all of them will stick. It’s still in a somewhat experimental phase," he said.
The executive vice president of digital marketing agency 360i, Jared Belsky, said marketers are gleaning more data from the company than ever before. "They have so much information to share on consumers, they are getting better at making data available. They’re helping us target better, but to a point," he said.
Facebook has no estimates for the first quarter of 2013.
