Facebook reported its fourth quarter 2012 earnings Wednesday evening, and the world’s largest social networking company made more money from advertising during the final three months of the year than in 2011, with revenue climbing to $1.585 billion (up 40 percent from $1.13 billion in 2011). But overall, net income — the money Facebook took home — fell 21 percent from the year prior, from $302 million in 2011 to $64 million in 2012.
Earnings-per-share also dropped sharply, from $0.14 in 2011 to $0.03 in 2012. Facebook noted that its costs increased 82 percent over the year prior, which explains why net income did not rise along with the revenue climb.
And the company did report growth in areas it has identified as key to its future success, namely, mobile users and mobile advertising: Mobile monthly active users reached 680 million around the globe in the fourth quarter of 2012, up 57 percent from 2011 (total Facebook users were up to 1.06 billion). Meanwhile, mobile ad revenue reached 23 percent of Facebook’s total ad revenue in the fourth quarter, up from 14 percent in the third.
Facebook executives including founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg will discuss the earnings in a call livestreamed at 5 p.m. EST on Facebook’s investor website here.
