Facebook's Revenue Exceeds Estimates On Mobile Push
Facebook Inc.
reached a key milestone last quarter when more than half of its advertising revenue came from mobile devices.
The stock rose as much as 16 percent to $62.
30 in New York on Thursday.
The surge followed quarterly results in which revenue rose 63 percent to $2.
59 billion and profit excluding some items was 31 cents a share, the Menlo Park, California-based social network said in a statement.
Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, who started Facebook a decade ago and turned it into world's largest social network, spent the last year adding more ways for advertisers to reach consumers.
Users are spending more time on wireless devices, with mobile promotions generating $1.
25 billion in the latest quarter and accounting for 53 percent of ad sales, up from 49 percent in the prior period.
'Mobile is so key for them,' said Laurence Balter, an analyst at Oracle Investment Research who has a hold rating on the stock.
'It's going to be a big battle between Facebook and Twitter, and it's Facebook's game to lose.
' Net income rose more than eightfold to $523 million, or 20 cents a share, from $64 million, or 3 cents, a year earlier.
As marketers shift spending to social-media services, Facebook and Twitter Inc are set to expand their share of the digital-ad market, according to EMarketer Inc.
By 2015, Facebook will grab an estimated 9 percent, up from 5.
9 percent in 2012, while Twitter may take 2.
2 percent, up from 0.
6 percent, the researcher said last month.
Twitter reports its first earnings as a public company on Feb.
5.
'The investments we've made to improve our mobile products are paying off,' David Ebersman , Facebook's chief financial officer, said in an interview.
'We still feel like we're really early and very much in investment mode in terms of what we're trying to build here.
' Even with more digital-ad spending anticipated, Facebook has been limiting the number of ads shown in a member's main stream of messages, known as the News Feed, to avoid alienating users.
That pressures the company to increase the effectiveness of their promotions and charge more for them, according to Robert Peck, an analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Inc.
BUSINESSDAYONLINE