Facebook Inc. reported record quarterly results in the final three months of 2019. The performance was fuelled by the social media giant’s dominant position in digital media advertising.
Facebook reported revenue of US$21.08 billion in the fourth quarter, which topped Wall Street analyst estimates of US$20.88 billion. It’s the first time Facebook has generated more than US$20 billion in a quarter and it’s an increase from US$16.9 billion in the same period a year earlier.
“Facebook reaffirmed its dominance in the world’s daily social-media habits in 2019,” Jitendra Waral, senior analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence, said in a research note published ahead of the results.
“Four of the top five apps downloaded in 2019 were Facebook properties, showing that regulatory and privacy concerns have little impact on usage.”
Indeed, the company’s WhatsApp, Messenger, Facebook and Instagram apps were joined by TikTok in the top five global downloads last year, according to the data research firm Sensor Tower.
In the past decade, Facebook deftly navigated the user shift from desktop computers to mobile devices. At the start of 2010, the company had roughly 360 million users and had barely gotten started on its mobile strategy. Today, most of its users access Facebook on their phones.
In the latest quarter, total monthly active users rose to 2.5 billion, up from 2.32 billion in the same quarter in 2018.
Facebook has clearly benefited from timely acquisitions. WhatsApp, one of the world’s most popular messaging apps, was acquired in 2014 for US$19 billion. Instagram, meanwhile, was purchased ahead of the company’s 2012 IPO for US$1 billion. Since that acquisition, Instagram’s user base has grown to more than one billion users from 30 million.
As its advertising business continues to grow, Facebook’s stock has also been on the rise. The company’s shares have increased roughly 50 per cent in the past year, boosting Facebook’s market capitalization by nearly US$200 billion.
Advertisement