Facebook has surpassed Wall Street's estimates for its Q2 earnings this year, recording a revenue of $9.3 billion — thanks in large part to mobile advertisements.
Facebook, the largest social network and currently one of the most significant tech firms in the world, managed to maintain its 17 percent year-over-year user growth, with a huge chunk — 66 percent — of its 2 billion user base using Facebook each day.
Facebook had some help, of course: it owns several of the most widely used apps today — Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and the standalone Facebook app. Its stock rose more than 4 percent to around $173 after the earnings report, according to Reuters.
Facebook's Mobile Ads The Primary Culprit
The company's steep revenue comes as no surprise, seeing as how advertisements continue proliferating within its many apps and services. More ads continue to appear in newsfeeds, and Messenger, Facebook's ultra-popular messaging platform, has already begun displaying ads for some users.
Facebook did not disclose how Instagram and other apps and services it owns played into the whole revenue. But the company has generally turned aggressive when it comes to improving the photo-messaging app, periodically giving it Snapchat-like features.
Revenue Growth Will Slow Down This Year: Facebook
The Menlo Park, California-based company expects revenue growth to slow down this year, however. Facebook CFO Dave Wehner confirmed so during a conference call with analyst, saying it will reach the limit of the number of ads it can show in the newsfeed, hence the slowdown.
But Wehner says the company expects a continued upswing for mobile.
"In mobile we're continuing to see great strengths," he told Reuters.
"We're seeing more and more ad dollars getting allocated to mobile, and we think that trend will continue."
Better Than Google
Mobile ad revenue represented 87 percent of Facebook's total ad revenue in the latest quarter, a little above last year's 84 percent. This quarter, Facebook beat Google in terms of revenue growth, a massive feat when one considers Google's significance in the online advertising sphere.
Facebook has begun testing ads on its Messenger service. The upshot? People will see more ads when using the app, giving more ways for Facebook to monetize the messaging platform. Facebook will eventually find a way to monetize WhatsApp too but hasn't.
"I'm confident that we're going to get this right over the long term," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during a conference call with analysts.
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