Facebook's fourth quarter earnings results have seen the company's revenue increase by 40% and its majority usage move definitively from desktop to mobile for the first time ever.
The social platform also eclipsed its increase in total number of users from Q4 2011, increasing by 25% year-on-year to reach a remarkable 1.056 billion users.
It has solidly established itself as a mobile-focussed organisation, as reiterated by Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg: "Today there is no argument Facebook is a mobile company,"
Mobile has taken the company from strength to strength over the last few months, with the previous earnings report showing that mobile ad revenue accounted for 14% of its total ad revenue, even after only a few months in the market.
Facebook's Q4 report shows that that trend has continued with mobile ad revenue now contributing 23% of the company's total ad revenue. The further improved performance of Facebook on mobile is attracting more and more advertisers to the prospect of sponsored stories and adverts within apps on the social platform.
The continued growth of Facebook also means that, based on this success, Mr Zuckerberg will be implementing an intensive recruitment drive over the next year. The company's expenses actually rose by a staggering 82% to $1.06 billion this year, but it shows no sign of slowing down.
Its stock recently climbed in value to reach its highest point since July 2012 at $30, despite still being a few dollars short of its IPO of $38. This improvement was widely attributed to the performance illustrated in the previous earnings report released by the social media giant and the performance outlined in its Q4 report gives further strength to its positioning in the market.
A spokesperson for City Index, the spread betting and forex trading specialists, commented on the report: "Facebook saw fourth quarter revenues grow by 40% to $1.585bn with revenue from mobile adverts doubling, raising confidence that the social networking sites transition into mobile driven revenue is gathering pace.
"However, shares traded with additional volatility in after-market hours trading as the results were digested with revenues missing somewhat optimistic analyst forecasts. The street had expected revenues of $1.53bn, which from the outset looks like Facebook's numbers beat forecasts, but as some payment driven revenue from September 2012 had been booked into the fourth quarter reporting period, this inflated the revenue numbers, which would have been closer to a growth of 34% or $1.515bn, missing forecasts."