Zuckerberg: connecting the world means more than money

Steven Loeb · January 28, 2015 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/3bad

Facebook CEO pushes back against investor who questions company's commitment to Internet.org

As he typically does after each Facebook earnings release, Mark Zuckerberg got on the company conference call and talked about Internet.org and "connecting the world." I listen to every single one of these calls (it's what I get paid to do!) and he says pretty much the same thing. Every. Single. Time.

Frankly, it has become somewhat hard to even cover these calls because the script so rarely deviates.

Well, on Wednesday's call, an investor pushed back on hearing about Internet.org yet again and said, frankly, "Why should I care about this?"

"Mark, I think during your remarks in every earnings call, you talk to investors for a considerable amount of time about Facebook's efforts to connect the world and, specifically, about Internet.org, which suggests you think this is important to investors," Bernstein analyst Carlos Kirjner said. 

"Can you clarify why you think this matters to investors and, most importantly, why you think Facebook can make a significant difference in scale, given that your annual popular users in  emerging markets is about five bucks and to connect a new user who has no device or coverage may be at least in the tens of dollars?"

Zuckerberg seemed a little taken aback by the question, saying, "It matters to the kind of investors we want to have." 

Facebook, he said, is mission focused, and cares about more than just revenue.

"We wake up every day and make decisions because we want to help connect the world,  and that's what we're doing here," he said. "So, part of the subtext of your question is that, yeah, if  we were only focused on making money, we might put all of our energy on just increasing ads to people in U.S. and the other most developed countries. But that's not the only thing we care about here."

Zuckerberg admitted that yes, connecting people, "will  be a good business opportunity for us as well," but still stressed that there was another, more important aspect, to the mission.

"As these countries get more connected the economies grow, the ad markets grow and if Facebook, and the other services in our community, or  the number one, two, three, four, five services that people  are using, then, over time,  we will be compensated  for some of the the value we've  provided. But, this is why we’re here. We're here because our mission is to connect to world, and I just think it's important that investors know that."

Earnings numbers

Facebook posted fourth quarter revenue of $3.85 billion,  beating Wall Street's estimates of $3.77 billion. Adjusted earnings per share came in at  $0.54 cents in the quarter, higher than the $0.48 cents a share that analysts had been expecting.

Advertising revenue was $3.59 billion for the quarter. It increased 53% from the same quarter the year before. Mobile accounted for 69% of that revenue, up from approximately 53% of advertising revenue in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Revenue from payments and fees for the quarter was $257 million, a 7% increase year-to-year.

GAAP net income was $701 million, a 34% increase from the $523 million for the fourth quarter of 2013, while non-GAAP net income for the quarter was $1.52 billion, up 86% compared to $814 million for the fourth quarter of 2013.

For the full year 2014, Facebook saw $12.47 billion in revenue, a 58% increase from 2013. Income from operations for the full year 2014 was $4.99 billion. Analystis had been expecting $12.39 billion in revenue. Earnings per share for the full year were $1.77.

Daily active users (DAUs) were 890 million on average for December 2014, an increase of 18% year-over-year, while mobile DAUs were 745 million on average for December 2014, an increase of 34% year-over-year.

Monthly active users (MAUs) were 1.39 billion as of December 31, 2014, an increase of 13% year-over-year. Mobile MAUs were 1.19 billion as of December 31, 2014, an increase of 26% year-over-year.

(Image source: nvplanningandprobate.woodburnlaw.com)

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