Facebook on Tuesday reported better than expected third quarter results with revenues for the quarter surging up 59 percent from the same period last year to $3.2bn (£1.98bn), well ahead of what analysts expected.
The social giant said it earned net income of $806 million, or 30 cents a share, up 90 percent, as compared to $425 million, or 17 cents a share earned in 2013. Mobile ads made up for 66 per cent of total advertising revenue for the third quarter of 2014, up from 49 per cent a year earlier.
Monthly active users of the social network rose 14 percent year-over-year to 1.35 billion as of September end, with 1.12 billion users accessing the website via mobile phones, up 29 per cent from a year earlier.
However, the company’s expenses increased by almost around 41 percent during the quarter mainly due to its recent acquisitions of messaging app WhatsApp and virtual reality headset maker Oculus Rift.
“This has been a good quarter with strong results,” said Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook co-founder and CEO.
“We continue to focus on serving our community well and continue to invest in connecting the world over the next decade.”
Despite posting satisfactory Q3 results, Facebook shares, which had hit a high of $81.16 on Tuesday, fell almost 10 percent in after hours trading to hover around $73 after the company announced its expenses are likely to reach up to 75 percent higher next year.
Facebook’s chief financial officer David Wehner , in a conference call with analysts, said the company’s expenses would go up as much as 75 percent for the year, to meet up investment in both engineering and acquisitions.
Wehner said he expects revenue growth would slow to between 40 percent and 47 percent in the fourth quarter from 59 percent in the third quarter.
“We believe that we have very substantial growth opportunities in front of us and we plan to invest aggressively to capitalise on those opportunities,” Wehner added.
