Facebook Touts Major Growth, Driven by Mobile Advertising

Facebook added 220 million monthly users in the past year, for a current total user base of 1.71 billion people. More than 90 percent of those users access Facebook via their mobile devices, where Facebook reaped 84 percent of its $6.2 billion in advertising revenue in the last quarter. The company saw 80 percent growth in Q2 from mobile ads, from an overall 59 percent growth rate in advertising. WhatsApp and Messenger, both of which have 1 billion users, are part of the company’s next move into video.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the positive earnings report drove Facebook to the position of fourth most valuable listed U.S. company, with stock prices leaping 7 percent to $131.51 for a market capitalization of $370 billion.

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“Facebook is outpacing its competitors in advertising and user growth,” with eMarketer reporting that the company’s share in mobile advertising (second only to Google) “is expected to jump to 12 percent this year from 8.6 percent two years ago.” Twitter and Yahoo both have “less than a 2 percent market share this year.”

“There’s a common misconception that the law of large numbers will prevent Facebook from growing further,” says Ideal Asset Management chief executive Rahul Shah. “But I think what they’re missing is that they’re stealing ad dollars from every other source there is. Pricing will continue to rise and they’ll continue to beat estimates.”

Facebook chief financial officer Dave Wehner notes that, “mobile continues to be the strength,” but Facebook’s “next growth move” is video. Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg says the company would “apply the same focus” it did to become successful in mobile now to become “video-first,” predicting that “within five years or so most of what people consume online will be video.”

The company, adds Zuckerberg, is “looking to build video products for its messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp” among other efforts.

Bloomberg enumerates the Facebook products that could generate revenue streams in the future. Search is one such product, since more than 2 billion searches are conducted daily on Facebook. The new version will feature users’ commentary and trending news, with the ultimate goal of allowing businesses to pay to reach people.

Facebook has focused on Live Video, even paying stars and publishers, but the company hasn’t yet figured out how to monetize it, says chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg. Messenger and WhatsApp, the latter of which is already being used for some commercial purposes, especially outside the U.S, still await revenue-generating features to be announced or tested.

Oculus Rift is for sale, and Zuckerberg reports all the preorders are filled, with “increasing demand from retail as stores plan for the holidays” and “more than 300 apps already available in the Oculus store for Gear VR.” But Facebook is still investing in research “to make virtual reality better in the future,” which means Oculus may not be a profit center for some time.

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