Facebook beats expectations thanks to mobile advertising

By DOMINIC JEFF
Published on 31/01/2013 11:17

Facebook beat Wall Street expectations for its financial fourth quarter with a 40 per cent jump in revenues to $1.6 billion (£1bn).

The company doubled its sales of advertising aimed at customers accessing the site from mobile phones, showing that it is tackling an area which has been of major concern to investors as more and more people surf the web on the go.

It reported profits of $64 million in the three months to December, down from $360m a year earlier when it was still a private company.

James Hughes, chief market analyst at Alpari, said: “Facebook shares dipped last night despite the company reporting strong profits, including a big increase in the revenue generated from mobile ads, which had been a major concern of investors since the IPO. I think at this stage, people had already priced a lot of this in, which is why we saw some profit taking here. On top of this, Facebook’s aggressive spending in 2013, while positive, is a risk at this stage.”