The social media giant – Facebook – has brought in $2.96 billion in advertising revenue in the third quarter of this year, up from $1.8 billion in the third quarter of 2013.
The social network continues to highlight its mobile advertising revenues, which comprise 66 per cent of total ad revenues, which is growing steadily. Last quarter the company reported mobile revenues were 62 per cent of total advertising revenue.
Facebook has been pushing mobile advertising this quarter with the launch of its new cross-platform advertising network Atlas, which it announced at the end of September. The company purchased Atlas from Microsoft last year and refreshed the platform to leverage Facebook’s vast store of personal data.
In addition to Atlas, Facebook opened up its mobile ad platform, Audience Network, to all advertisers in early October. The company also unveiled local awareness ads, which will allow local businesses to target users based on proximity. The location-based ads will also enable merchants to include a call to action in the promotion.
Chief Financial Officer Dave Wehner told analysts on a conference call that the social network is preparing for a 55 per cent to 75 per cent spike in expenses next year, when the world’s largest social network intends to invest in Whatsapp, Oculus and other products that have yet to show a profit.
Wehner forecast revenue growth of 40 per cent to 47 per cent in the final quarter of 2014. That’s down sharply from 59 per cent in the third quarter.
Facebook also for the first time disclosed the financial performance for WhatsApp, a mobile messaging app that the company acquired earlier this month for $22 billion.
According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, WhatsApp lost $232.5 million in the first six months of 2014, compared to a loss of $58.8 million in the first six months of 2013. WhatsApp does not currently show ads on its service and Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has said the company will not rush to monetise the service.
The world’s No.1 online social network said its total number of monthly users reached 1.35 billion in the third quarter, with 864 million users accessing the service every day.
Last quarter COO Sheryl Sandberg promised that Facebook would be sojourning further into the world of video-based advertising, largely as a result of the acquisition of LiveRail. Earlier this month, comScore noted that Facebook had surpassed YouTube in terms of video views on desktop. We’re still waiting to see what the social network can do with mobile video.
A few highlights of Facebook’s fiscal performance:-
? Facebook generated $2.96 billion in ad sales during Q3, up from Q2’s $2.68 billion. Overall revenue totaled $3.2 billion, a 59 percent lift from Q3 2013.
? Mobile continues to drive Facebook’s growth, representing roughly 66 per cent of ad revenue for Q3. Comparatively, mobile accounted for 49 per cent of ad sales during 2013’s third quarter.
? Daily active users (DAUs) averaged 864 million in September, a 19 per cent jump from the same month last year.
? Mobile averaged 703 million DAUs during last month, a year-over-year increase of 39 per cent.
? Cross-platform monthly active users (MAUs) in September totaled 1.35 billion, a 14 per cent hike.
? Mobile MAUs came in at roughly 1.1 billion last month, which represented a 29 per cent gain.