Facebook Sales Top Estimates on Gains in Mobile Advertising

Facebook’s (NASDAQ:FB) fourth-quarter revenue climbed more than forecast, driven by advertisers’ continued push to reach consumers on mobile phones. The world’s largest social-media company said in a statement that sales jumped 51 percent to $8.81 billion, topping the $8.51 billion average analyst projection and monthly active users on its main social network increased 17 percent from a year earlier to 1.86 billion people, with 1.23 billion checking daily and 1.74 billion accessing it via their smartphones.
As quoted in the press release:

Facebook has solidified its position as No. 2 in the market for mobile advertising, behind Alphabet Inc.’s Google. The Menlo Park, California-based company last year started selling more marketing spots and added e-commerce tools to Instagram, its photo-sharing app that now has more than 600 million users. Facebook also expanded video advertising, drawing ad dollars that might otherwise have gone to television commercials.
“Facebook and Google are the two foundational elements to all digital advertising,” said Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research Group. “They’re just so big in terms of how much time people spend on the platform, and no advertisers’ goals need go unmet if they’re using Facebook.”

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