Facebook is often the social media platform many people love to hate, but the service continues to grow rapidly, despite its early struggles with entering the mobile market.
According to Facebook’s recently released Q4 2015 earnings, the company now has 1.59 billion monthly active users, a number that exceeded investor estimates of 1.58 billion, and an increase of 14 percent over the same period last year. The social network also managed to generate $5.8 billion USD in revenue.
Interestingly, Facebook didn’t attribute its growth to a single source during the company’s recent investor’s call, though the social network’s positive financials are mainly related to the company’s rapidly growing mobile foothold.
With respect to average daily users, Facebook now sits at 1.04 billion, an increase of 17 percent over the same period last year. Mobile also continues to be the main way most people browse the world’s most popular social network, with 1.44 billion people using Facebook on a monthly basis.
Compared to last year’s Q4 results, Facebook’s revenue grew an impressive 52 percent over the same time period last year, surging from $3.85 billion USD, to $5.84 billion USD. Advertising revenue increased 57 percent, bringing in nearly $5.64 billion USD in revenue for the company. Facebook also notes that 80 percent of its ad revenue stems from mobile, an increase from 69 percent over last year.
In a statement, Facebook co-founder and CEO Marc Zuckerberg said, “Our community continues to grow and our business is thriving. We continue to invest in better serving our community, building our business and connecting the world.”
It’s worth noting that Facebook’s recently released financials don’t include the company’s other properties like Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Unlike other social networks, Facebook continues to enjoy regular visitor numbers and revenue growth year over year. Competing social network Twitter continues to struggle when it comes to growth and recently saw the departure of a number of its executives.
Facebook’s popular Messenger service recently hit 800 million users world wide.
Related reading: Big names leave Twitter, including head of Vine for Google’s VR team
[source]Facebook[/source]
