Facebook Mobile Ad Revenue Skyrockets

Facebook has reported second-quarter earnings that far exceed experts' predictions. The key factor behind that unexpected revenue intake: mobile advertising.

Facebook recently reported second-quarter earnings of 19 cents per share -- substantially higher than the 14 cents per share predicted by analysts.

Almost half (41 per cent) of the company's $1.6 billion in advertising revenue came through mobile devices. That's also much higher than expected -- experts had predicted mobile ads to account for about one-third of Facebook's total advertising revenue.

Overall, Facebook's mobile ad revenue jumped an incredible 61 per cent over the second quarter of 2012 -- which is when the firm first went public. (Source: fb.com)

Daily Active Mobile User Count Nearly Half a Billion

Critical to Facebook's mobile advertising success: the growth of daily active mobile users. It's estimated the total number of people accessing the social networking service every day via mobile technology is approaching half a billion.

Meanwhile, the number of people accessing Facebook on mobile devices at least once a month is actually closer to one billion.

Approximately 1 million brands currently advertise on Facebook. It's estimated about about one in twenty posts on an average user's News Feed are advertisements.

With the News Feed generating impressive income, the focus now turns to Instagram -- a Facebook service that generates a great deal of interest but very little revenue.

Though it could be unpopular with users, Facebook chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg says pushing ads to Instagram makes sense.

"We expect that over time we're going to generate a lot of profit from it, probably through advertising," Zuckerberg said. "When the right time comes, we'll think about doing advertising." (Source: techhive.com)

Twitter Taking Teens? Zuckerberg Says No

So, Facebook appears to be defying critics who said the firm couldn't possibly generate substantial revenue. But there are still serious challenges ahead -- in particular, recent reports have suggested the site is losing many of its younger users to rivals like Twitter and Tumblr.

But Zuckerberg says such reports are exaggerated. He insists his firm has seen no conclusive evidence to suggest teens are making a switch.