Facebook profits soar as mobile advertising grows to 62 per cent of revenues

Facebook's stock price quadruples in two years as mobile advertising push pays off

Facebook has confounded sceptics and beaten Wall Street forecasts with mobile advertising - once viewed as a struggling part of the social network's business - now contributing 62 per cent of its advertising revenues.

Facebook's second quarter saw revenue totalling $2.9bn (£1.7bn), an increase of 61 per cent compared to the same quarter last year, when it posted revenues of $1.8bn (£1.1bn).

Advertising revenue accounted for $2.7bn (£1.6bn), a 67 per cent increase on the same quarter last year, with mobile advertising revenue making up more than 60 per cent of that, compared with 41 per cent in the second quarter of 2013.

Net income for the quarter was $791m, up 138 per cent compared with $333m for the same quarter the previous year.

"We had a good second quarter," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. "Our community has continued to grow, and we see a lot of opportunity ahead as we connect the rest of the world."

Facebook also reports that its number of daily active users (DAUs) has increased in total by almost 20 per cent compared with the same period last year, with an average of 829 million users a day during June 2014.

Of those, an average of 654 million users were accessing Facebook via smartphone or tablet, an increase of almost 40 per cent compared with one year ago.

News of Facebook's soaring profits saw its share price jump by five per cent to a record high of $75.

Back in late 2012, Computing suggested that purchasing shares in the then floundering stock of Facebook would be a wise move. If anyone had put money into Facebook at that point, when its share price fell to as low as $18.75, they would be looking at a four-fold return.