Facebook has reported first-quarter revenues of US$354m, equating to a 42pc rise on last year’s figure.
The increase actually fell short of expectations, as analysts had predicted revenue of US$356m. However, the social network has pointed to the impact of a strong dollar. If not for year-on-year changes in foreign exchange rates, Facebook’s revenue would have increased by 49pc.
In addition, the company earned 42 cent a share – slightly more than the 41 cents a share analysts had expected.
As was the case three months ago, cash from mobile ads continues to pile in, representing 73pc of the quarter’s total revenue – a 59pc rise on the first quarter of 2014.
Spending, however, has also been high. Capital expenditure for the quarter were US$502m.
“This was a strong start to the year,” said Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement. “We continue to focus on serving our community and connecting the world.”
Facebook users also increase
Elsewhere, the site’s daily active users were 936m on average for March 2015, an increase of 17pc since the same time last year, while monthly active users rose 13pc to 1.44bn.
Reflecting the rise in mobile ad revenue, monthly mobile users were up 1.25bn as of the end of last month, an increase of 24pc year-on-year.
In February, Facebook announced it had reached a new milestone by hitting 2m active advertisers.
Mark Zuckerberg image via Shutterstock