Strong Q3 for SAP while Facebook sees mobile revenue growth

Business software provider SAP has posted strong Q3 financial results, with cloud representing a key area of growth.

The firm's software revenues rose to €1bn, a rise of 17 per cent compared with this time last year. Cloud subscriptions saw the biggest growth thanks to SAP acquiring Ariba, with €63m in revenue this quarter compared to just €4m a year ago, representing growth of over 1,500 per cent.

SAP looks strong going into the final quarter, with the firm on target to meet its estimates.

"I am pleased with SAP's overall performance in the third quarter. This is the 11th consecutive quarter of double-digit non-IFRS software and software-related service revenue growth for SAP," said Werner Brandt, CFO of SAP.

"We continued to invest in our cloud business in the third quarter. We remain focused on operating discipline and remain confident in our full-year outlook," he added.

Facebook also released its financial results, the second time the social media giant has done so since it floated on the stock market, reporting a Q3 loss of $59m despite revenues rising by 32 per cent.

There's better news for the firm in mobile, with advertising in the space rising by 13 per cent this quarter. Facebook said mobile revenue for Q3 was $157m, 14 per cent of total advertising sales, a figure that comes in above many analysts' expectations.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told analysts and investors that this just marks the start of the social media website properly monetising its mobile arm.

"I think our opportunity on mobile is the most misunderstood aspect of Facebook today," he said, speaking on a conference call.

"Long-term I think we're going to monetise better for the amount of time spent on mobile than on desktop," Zuckerberg added. "We're actually much better positioned on mobile than we were on desktop."

Facebook now has over a billion monthly users, with 600 million of them accessing the site via smartphones.