Facebook profits triple as mobile ad sales surge

Revenue soars 72 per cent to $2.5bn

Facebook profits tripled to $642m (£383m) for the first quarter of 2014, thanks in part to a surge in mobile advertising that helped revenue to soar 72 per cent.

The social networking company beat analysts' expectations in Q1, pulling in $2.5bn (£1.5bn) in revenue, $2.27bn (£1.35bn) of which came from advertising.

Mobile advertising - a key area of concern for investors when Facebook held its initial public offering (IPO) in May 2012 - accounted for 59 per cent of advertising revenue, up from 30 per cent a year ago.

"Facebook's business is strong and growing, and this quarter was a great start to 2014," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder and CEO.

"We've made some long-term bets on the future while staying focused on executing and improving our core products and business. We're in a great position to continue making progress towards our mission," he added.

The social network now has 1.28 billion monthly active users, an increase of 15 per cent year on year, while over one billion of these users accessed Facebook via mobile.

Facebook also announced that its CFO, David Ebersman, will be stepping down after five years in the post. He will be succeeded on June 1 by David Wehner, who is currently Facebook's vice president of corporate finance and business planning.

"David has been a great partner in building Facebook, and I'm grateful for everything he's done to help make the world more open and connected," said Zuckerberg.

"David set us up to operate efficiently and make the long-term investments we need, and built an incredibly strong team including Dave Wehner, our next CFO. I look forward to working with Dave in his new role."

Earlier this month, it was reported that Facebook was looking into launching an e-money service that would enable users to make payments and transfer funds to others.