Facebook rides mobile devices to double profit

Of the total number of active daily users, 745 million (84 per cent) logged in to Facebook through mobile devices.

In this October 29, 2014 photo, people are silhouetted as they pose with mobile devices in front of a screen projected with a Facebook logo, in this picture illustration taken in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Facebook has exceeded analysts’ predictions with annual results of double the net profit posted by the company a year earlier — thanks to good business growth through mobile devices in 2014.

The company earned in 2014 a net profit of $2.9 billion, nearly double the figure of 2013, while Facebook’s income last year amounted to $12.4 billion, representing an increase of 58.4 per cent compared to the previous year.

The results presented on Wednesday showed that the business branch of Facebook grew more last year and confirmed the success of the company to make the network more mobile-based.

In December 2014, the number of Facebook subscribers reached 890 million which meant a growth of 18 per cent compared to a year earlier.

Of the total number of active daily users, 745 million (84 per cent) logged in to the network through mobile devices, which accounted for a 34-per cent increase compared to the previous year.

In addition, revenues derived from advertising on mobile phones during the last quarter of 2014 accounted for 69 per cent of total revenue, 16 percentage points more than in the same period in 2013.

To take full advantage of this trend, Mark Zuckerberg’s company presented Facebook Audience Network last year, a network that puts in contact exhibition platforms — mostly mobile applications — with advertisers.

Facebook Mobile aims to penetrate emerging markets such as Latin America and Southeast Asia where not everyone has access to computers but where the use of smartphones is significantly increasing.

During the three months of October, November and December, Facebook shareholders earned profits of $0.25 per share, compared to the $0.20 in the same period the previous year, while the company had a turnover of $3.8 billion, marking an increase of 48.6 per cent, with $2.58 billion for the last quarter of 2013.

Facebook’s results, however, did not meet investor expectations and the share price slipped by 1.81 per cent to $74.87 per share in electronic trading after the close of the markets in New York.