Mobile now over 50% of Facebook ad revenue, crosses $1B

Zuckerberg says 2014 will be the year to deliver new mobile experiences, more standalone apps

It's been around a year and a half since Mark Zuckerberg made his declaration of the company being mobile first. 

In today's Q4 and full year earnings report that strategy paid big dividends, as mobile represented over 50% of all of Facebook's advertising revenue for the first time. The last quarter was also the first time that mobile advertising crossed $1 billion for the first time as well.

Advertising revenue was $2.34 billion for the quarter. It increased 76% from the same quarter the year before.  Mobile accounted for 53% of that revenue, up from approximately 23% of advertising revenue in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Even more impressive: the $1.25 in mobile advertising was nearly as large as the company's total ad revenue in the fourth quarter of 2012.

So its no wonder that, in a conference call following the release of the number, Mark Zuckerberg reiterated the company's comittment to mobile going forward.

“If 2012 was the year we turned out core product into a mobile product, then 2013 was the year we turned out business into mobile business. I expect 2014 will be the year where be begin to deliver new and engaging types of mobile experiences," he said.

That means "giving people the power to share different kinds of content with different groups of people."

"This is something we focused on by building separate mobile apps, beyond the main Faceboo app," he said, specifically citing messenger, which grew more than 70% in the last three months after the app was updated.

"We have a lot more coming to Messenger in the first half of this year, and I'm excited to build on these early results."

Another example he gave was Instagram, which came to Windows Phone, saw its first ads and saw the addition of Instagram direct, which allows for the sending of private messages.

"One theme that will be clear from our work on products like Messenger, Groups and Instagram is that our vision of Facebook is to create a set of products that help you share any type of content you want with any audience you want."

Q4 and full year earnings

In the earnings report, Facebook posted revenue of $2.59 billion for the quarter, beating Wall Street's estimates of $2.33 billion, and up 55% from $1.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012. Adjusted earnings per share came in at 31 cents in the quarter, higher than the 27 cents a share that analysts had been expecting.

For the full year 2013, Facebook saw revenue of $7.9 billion, and EPS of 88 cents. 

"It was a great end to the year for Facebook," Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO, said in a statement. "We're looking forward to our next decade and to helping connect the rest of the world."

Revenue from payments and fees for the quarter was $241 million.

GAAP net income was $523 million, compared to a net income of $64 million for the fourth quarter of 2012, while non-GAAP net income for the quarter was $780 million, up 83% compared to $426 million for the fourth quarter of 2012.

For the full year, monthly active users (MAUs) were 1.23 billion as of December 31, 2013 , an increase of 16% year-over-year, while mobile MAUs were 945 million, an increase of 39% year-over-year.

Daily active users (DAUs) were 757 million on average, an increase of 22% year-over-year, while mobile DAUs were 556 million on average, an increase of 49%.

(Image source: https://www.jana.com)