Facebook faces dip after jump
Facebook’s revenue jumped 51 per cent in the last quarter, new stats show.
Analysts say the rise was driven primarily by advertising, with total ad revenue estimated at $US8.3 billion.
Mobile advertising was behind 84 per cent of fourth quarter revenue, compared to its 80 per cent share the year before.
Facebook now claims 1.23 billion daily active users up 18 per cent on the prior year, with about 90 per cent accessing Facebook on mobile.
“We expect that 2017 will be an aggressive investment year,” Facebook chief financial officer David Wehner said this week.
“On revenue, the outlook is unchanged.”
While the good figures have brought in new shareholders, Mr Wehner says the ad revenue growth rate will come down this year.
Analysts agree.
“They grew 57 per cent in 2016, and our current model has 'only' 38 per cent revenue growth in 2017,” Michael Pachter, analyst at Wedbush Securities, told Reuters.
“That's still pretty impressive.”
Most of the earnings came from Facebook's core network, though huge user numbers on messaging service WhatsApp and photo-sharing platform Instagram help as well.
Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg’s person wealth is now around $US59 billion, according to Bloomberg.