Social networking site Facebook has seen a rise in revenue and profit year on year for the first quarter of 2013. The firm revealed that mobile accounted for 30 per cent of all advertising revenue for the quarter compared with 23 per cent in 4Q12.
The firm generated $1.5bn in sales in 1Q13, up 38 per cent year on year. Net income grew by 6.8 per cent to reach $219m for the quarter.
Facebook said it had 665 million daily active users in March 2013, representing a year on year increase of 26 per cent. Monthly active users for the quarter numbered 1.11 billion, an increase of 23 per cent year on year. However, the largest increase was in mobile monthly active users, which increased by 54 per cent year on year to reach 751 million as of March 31, 2013.
During the quarter, the firm launched its Android UI skin Facebook Home, and Instagram had 100 million monthly active users in 1Q13, according to Facebook.
“We’ve made a lot of progress in the first few months of the year,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. “We have seen strong growth and engagement across our community and launched several exciting products.”
Facebook has just started to scratch the surface of its potential revenues, said Andrew Yates, CEO and co-founder of social CRM provider, Artesian Solutions
“Moving forwards, I anticipate that Facebook will continue to monetise its services by developing new offerings that provide dynamic content based on users’ data,” he said. “Whilst it will still take some time, the company will eventually trade above its IPO listing price and serve as a benchmark of progress for digital advertising, mobile and social.”
Marina Koytcheva, director of forecasting at analyst firm CCS Insight, added that Facebook is consistently and successfully addressing the two concerns raised at its IPO: monetisation of the user base and mobile strategy.
“Advertising revenue is growing and this growth is coming entirely from mobile,” she said. “The company now appears to be very well positioned to capitalise on the fast growing mobile engagement of its users. “
She added that another positive was the consistent growth of revenue across all regions.
“Future user growth is likely to come from emerging markets, and the company needs to build on this momentum to ensure its place as a major digital advertising platform there.”