Facebook fourth quarter revenues up by 63 per cent on growth in mobile

Facebook reported fourth-quarter sales up by 63 per cent from a year earlier to $1.59 billion. Ad revenue rose by 76 per cent to $2.34 billion, of which 53 per cent came from mobile services, more than double the share a year earlier. Despite a strong increase in staff and infrastructure costs, Facebook saw its operating profit double year-on-year, to $1.13 billion from $523 million. The operating margin improved to 44 per cent from 33 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2012. 

Net profit jumped to $523 million or 20 cents a share, from $64 million or 3 cents a share a year ago. The company generated free cash flow of $2.85 billion over the full year and ended 2013 with total cash of $11.45 billion. 

Facebook a further rise in daily active users on the social network, to an average 757 million in December 2013, an increase of 22 per cent year-over-year. Mobile daily active users rose by 49 per cent to 556 million. On a monthly basis, the site had 1.23 billion average users, an increase of 16 per cent, and 945 million mobile users, up by 39 per cent year-over-year.