Facebook have released their Q4 earning reports, obliterating earlier estimates after it earned over $5.8 billion in revenue. The continuous upward trend of the company as it attracts users and earns ad revenues saw it dominate the $4.5 billion in revenue it made during the last quarter.
Facebook’s monthly user count growth was a tad bit slower in the fourth quarter, being only 2.58% as opposed to the third quarter’s 4.02%. However growth is still growth, even if it’s slow, and as a result there are now over 1.59 billion people who use Facebook each month. Facebook-owned WhatsApp also saw an increase in users as it now boasts an impressive 900 million users. Coming in behind is Messenger, Facebook’s own messaging app, at 800 million users. Instagram, the social media platform that’s filled with stylised pictures of food has over 400 million users.
Even Facebook’s controversial internet.org has seen quite the growth, connecting over 19 million people to the internet. Safety Check, another feature that has taken some flak for not being available during some crises, has notified over 950 million people.
While YouTube is undoubtedly the king of the online video viewing experience, it is fidgeting ever so slightly in its nervousness; Facebook now sees over 100 million hours of video watched every single day. While that’s still quite a distance from YouTube’s daily count, the distance is closing.
Facebook’s business side now has over 2.5 million advertisers and 50 million small businesses on Pages, up from the 45 million it had in the third quarter. Subsequently. millions of Facebook users leave comments, praises and harshly worded critiques on these pages, resulting in Facebook pushing to make the Messenger app the new way to people communicate with these businesses.
As a result Facebook has become an incredibly lucrative platform for its shareholders; an average user is worth $3.73, the amount an advertiser would have to pay Facebook to reach them and litter their timelines with side banners, video ads and sponsored posts.
