Facebook revenue jumps 40 per cent in Q4 as mobile overtakes Web use

Facebook posted a revenue increase of 40 per cent in the fourth quarter as the number of daily mobile users exceeded daily Web users for the first time ever, the company reported.

Revenue for the social networking company rose to $US1.59 billion in the quarter ended Dec. 31, up about 40 per cent from $US1.13 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011. The increase is a considerable uptick from the 32 per cent year-over-year sales gain that Facebook posted in the third quarter of 2012.

The site's monthly active users on mobile devices increased 57 percent year over year to 680 million; mobile daily active users also exceeded daily active users on the Web for the first time during the quarter, Facebook announced.

Total monthly active users were 1.06 billion, up 25 per cent from the year-earlier quarter.

"In 2012, we connected over a billion people and became a mobile company," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement.

Facebook's mobile business also brought in a larger share of the company's overall advertising revenue. It made up 23 per cent of ad revenue, up from 14 per cent of ad revenue in the third quarter.

Facebook's total advertising revenue was $US1.33 billion, representing 84 per cent of the company's total sales.

Facebook posted net income of $US64 million for the quarter, representing a profit for the first time since the company went public last May. It reported a net loss of $US59 million during 2012's third quarter.

However, the fourth-quarter profit was down more than 78 per cent from the $US302 million that Facebook earned a year earlier, before it was publicly listed.

Total annual revenue increased 37 per cent to $US5.09 billion.

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