More users than China has people: 3 key points from Facebook’s Q3 report

Mark Zuckerberg has not been, contrary to the latest reporting, spending all his hours learning mandarin. He has also been, if anything is to be deduced from the third quarter reports from Facebook, working hard, strategising and growing Facebook. The company has released its financial results for the quarter ended on 30 September 2014 and it recorded increases.

Facebook on Tuesday said strong advertising sales lifted third-quarter revenue by 59%.

“This has been a good quarter with strong results,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. “We continue to focus on serving our community well and continue to invest in connecting the world over the next decade.”

The negative news that followed the report is that Facebook shares tumbled 9 % in after-hours trading following an announcement by the company that it would spend more than expected in 2015.

Here are the key points from the company’s third quarter earnings report:

Revenue

Facebook reported in US$3.2-billion and US$0.43 in adjusted earnings per share. This is an increase from the US$2.9-billion figure of the previous quarter.

Revenue from advertising still makes up the bulk of Facebook’s income, with the US$2.96-billion it brought in representing an increase of 19% year-over-year.

Mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 66% of advertising revenue for the third quarter of 2014, up from approximately 49% of advertising revenue in the third quarter of 2013.

Payments and other fees revenue was US$246-million, a 13% increase from the same quarter last year.

Costs and expenses

GAAP costs and expenses for the quarter were $1.81 billion. Recording an increase of 41% in comparison to the third quarter of 2013.

Users

The number of monthly active users on Facebook has risen to 1.35-billion, meaning that as many people use Facebook as live in China. It’s also an improvement from the 1.32-billion users it reported in the second quarter and signals a user-base increase of 14% year-over-year. On the mobile front, the big blue social network reported 1.12-billion monthly active users in the third quarter, an increase of 29% year-over-year.

Daily active usage also appears to be growing, with an average of 864-million people logging onto Facebook every day in September 2014. Mobile users make up an increasing number of those with an average of 703-million people accessing Facebook from a mobile device in September 2014, an increase of 39% year-over-year.