Advertising sales for smartphones and tablets has generated a powerful growth for the company.
Facebook mobile ads sent the social network’s revenues considerably higher as the company reported it brought in $12.7 billion in Q4 2017.
That figure represents a year over year growth of 47 percent over the previous fourth quarter’s $8.81 billion.
The Facebook mobile ads revenue made up about 89 percent of the total earnings the company generated in the fourth quarter. In 2016’s last quarter, mobile advertising sales represented about 84 percent of total revenues.
The social network’s daily active users (DAUs) also increased year over year in December 2017. This figure was 14 percent higher than Q4 in 2016. There was also growth in terms of the company’s monthly active users (MAUs). In December, Facebook’s MAUs were 2.13 billion. That also represented a 14 percent increase over the same month the year before, said the company in a recently issued statement.
Mark Zuckerberg stated that a number of recent changes contributed to the Facebook mobile ads success.
“Last quarter, we made changes to show fewer viral videos to make sure people’s time is well spent,” said the company’s founder and CEO. “In total, we made changes that reduced time spent on Facebook by roughly 50 million hours every day. By focusing on meaningful connections, our community and business will be stronger over the long term.”
At the same time that the company was experiencing overall growth in active users as well as in revenue from advertising, Q4 represented the first time Facebook ever experienced a decline in its user numbers in the region including the United States and Canada. Going against the global trend and turning in a never before experienced direction, Facebook’s daily active users fell from 185 million to 184 million in the U.S. and Canada.
Facebook’s employee numbers have continued to increase despite the slumping U.S. and Canada active users numbers. In fact, the number of the company’s employees has grown by 47 percent year over year, reaching 25,105 people.
“2017 was a strong year for Facebook, but it was also a hard one,” said Zuckerberg in the statement in which the Facebook mobile ads figures were released. “In 2018, we’re focused on making sure Facebook isn’t just fun to use, but also good for people’s well-being and for society.”
