Facebook Posts Huge Beat as Mobile Ad Revenue Grows

Facebook’s earnings are in, and it’s a massive beat.

The company released its fourth-quarter numbers on Wednesday, reporting earnings per share of 31 cents on revenue of $2.59 billion, surpassing analyst expectations of 27 cents on revenue of $2.33 billion.

“It was a great end to the year for Facebook,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a canned statement. “We’re looking forward to our next decade and to helping connect the rest of the world.”

The biggest point here: Facebook’s mobile advertising revenue is continuing to climb, now accounting for 53 percent of the company’s overall advertising business. That’s more than double what it was in the same quarter last year, and up from the 49 percent it represented in the company’s previous quarter.

Unsurprisingly, as mobile ad revenue climbs, the company’s user base has also shifted en masse to accessing the site from mobile devices. Mobile daily active users were up to more than half a billion people, while mobile monthly active users are nearing one billion. That’s a near-complete turnaround of where Facebook was just one year ago, with much of its core user base on the desktop website.

Shares of Facebook jumped about six percent after hours, trading at around $57.

We’ll be listening on the conference call soon for any other insights, especially when it comes to Facebook’s teen problem.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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