Facebook may not be adding new users at the same pace it once was but the company has certainly figured out how to monetize the users they do have. The company on Wednesday reported fourth quarter earnings that beat Wall Street expectations and sent shares soaring in after-hours trading.
The leader in social networking posted a net income of $780 million on revenue of $2.6 billion during the final three months of 2013. Wall Street analysts anticipated earnings of $703.5 million on $2.3 billion in revenue.
During a conference call on the matter, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last quarter was the first in which more than 50 percent of their revenue came from mobile. Specifically, revenue from advertising was up 76 percent compared to a year ago. Overall, Facebook managed to capture 18.4 percent of all mobile ad spending in 2013.
Facebook noted 1.23 billion active monthly users during the quarter, an increase of 16 percent from the same period a year ago. Addressing the recently decline of teen usage on Facebook, CFO David Ebersman revealed that such usage had declined slightly but said they didn't have any other data to report on the matter at the moment.
As of writing, Facebook stock is up 12.12 percent in after-hours trading. But according to Edward Jones analyst Josh Olson, the company will need to continue to show new ways to grow moving forward.