Facebook’s quarterly profit crossed the $1 billion mark for the first time, with the company stating that it is making progress in its efforts to “capitalise on the shift to mobile”.

The $1.6 billion profit was more than doubled from $0.7 billion in Q4 2014. Revenue hit $5.8 billion, a 52 per cent increase year-on-year.

However, the strengthening of the US dollar continued to have an unfavourable impact on revenue, Dave Wehner, CFO, pointed out.

“Had exchange rates remained constant with Q4 2014 levels, our total revenue would have been approximately $320 million higher,” he explained in an earnings call.

Mobile ad revenue increased 81 per cent to $4.5 billion, representing 80 per cent of total ad revenue. Three years ago, the share was just over 20 per cent.

“We’re pleased with the growth we’re seeing in emerging markets and countries like China where businesses are advertising on Facebook and Instagram to reach people internationally,” said Sheryl Sandberg, COO.

“We continue to make progress on our three priorities, capitalising on the shift to mobile; growing the number of marketers using our ad products; and making our ads more relevant and effective,” she said.

“Heading into 2016, it is clear that consumers have shifted to mobile and businesses know they need to catch up. Marketers now realise that if they want to reach their customers where they are, mobile is essential,” she added.

The focus on mobile was evident when CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he told his product team: “If you come in and you try to show me a desktop product, I am going to kick you out; you have to come in and show me a mobile product.”

This strategy was “to motivate the organisation to shift its energy towards focusing on mobile”.

For the full year, profit was $3.7 billion, up 25.4 per cent, on revenue of  $17.9 billion, up 44 per cent.

Facebook said that in 2015 it invested heavily in its core product, while doubling investment levels in “next generation” services including WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger.

It also tripled investment levels in “long-term areas of focus” such as its connectivity efforts, Oculus and AI investments.

Monthly users
Zuckerberg shared monthly user figures in a Facebook post, where the number for WhatsApp and Instagram was the same as last quarter, while people connected via Internet.org took a jump from 15 million to 19 million (click image below to enlarge).

fb figures

Facebook monthly active users (MAUs) hit 1.59 billion as of 31 December, an increase of 14 per cent year-on-year, with mobile MAUs being 1.44 billion, an increase of 21 per cent.

What’s more, 90 per cent of the people who used Facebook on both a monthly and daily basis accessed it via mobile devices.

Virtual reality
Zuckerberg also provided details on Facebook’s VR activities, including the anticipated Samsung Gear VR with Oculus software.

“This month, we opened pre-orders for Oculus headsets. This will be the world’s best VR experience and we’re excited to begin shipping to people in more than 20 countries before the end of March,” said the CEO.

“More than 100 VR games and experiences are coming to Oculus this year. And we’ll also be shipping our Oculus Touch controllers to get your hands into virtual reality,” he added.