Five takeaways from Facebook’s earnings report
January 30, 2014
- Young user engagement: Facebook has faced some pointed questions from investors as evidence builds -- both from studies and through anecdotes -- that the company is losing traction among teenagers. But all users are doing more on the site, citing an uptick in the number of likes the social network sees.
- Mobile use: Facebook is still growing strong on the smaller screen, reporting that mobile daily users have increased 49 percent over the same period last year, to 556 million. Mobile monthly active users have also shot up, though less dramatically, to 945 million users -- an increase of 39 percent from the same period last year.
- Mobile advertising: Analysts were expecting a big increase in mobile advertising revenue, forecasting $1.1 billion generated by smartphone and tablet ads. The company beat those high expectations, reporting that mobile ads had actually generated $1.2 billion.
- Video ads: If you think mobile ad revenue excites analysts, it’s got nothing on what they expect for video ads. Facebook is currently testing the feature -- a product that’s expected to be a real money-maker for advertisers who want to put mini-commercials on the social network.
- Instagram’s growth continues to help its parent company.
Five takeaways from Facebook’s earnings report