- Daily active users (DAUs) = 1.13 billion on average for June 2016, an increase of 17% year-over-year.
- Mobile DAUs = 1.03 billion on average for June 2016, an increase of 22% year-over-year.
- Monthly active users (MAUs) = 1.71 billion as of June 30, 2016, an increase of 15% year-over-year.
- Mobile MAUs = 1.57 billion as of June 30, 2016, an increase of 20% year-over-year


Mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 84% of advertising revenue for the second quarter of 2016, up from approximately 76% of advertising revenue in the second quarter of 2015.

Cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities – Cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities were $23.29 billion at the end of the second quarter of 2016.

Facebook has 4 million advertisers, up from 3 million in March, COO Sheryl Sandberg told CNBC's on Tuesday.

The social media giant posted adjusted earnings of $1.09 per share on revenue of $7.01 billion. Analysts had expected earnings of 97 cents per share, adjusted, on $6.92 billion, according to a Thomson Reuters consensus estimate.

Advertising revenue hit $6.82 billion, above the $6.71 billion estimated by StreetAccount.

Monthly active users rose to 1.79 billion, above the more than 1.75 billion expected. For the first time, more than 1 billion users were active on their phones every day.

Facebook Profit Soars, but Growth Concerns Emerge

Nov. 2, 2016

Facebook Inc. reported Wednesday that its third-quarter profit soared, marking another period of untrammeled growth driven by the social network’s mobile ad products.

But shares of the company tumbled 5.7% to $119.94 after hours as the company signaled that its revenue growth could soon slow. The company said it sees ad revenue growth slowing “meaningfully” in mid-2017 as it will reduce its so-called “ad load,” or the number of ads it shows in a user’s feed.

Facebook is known for its rapid growth, having boosted its revenue by at least 35% year over year every quarter for the past four years, according to FactSet data.

In July, Facebook executives said they expect growth to slow in the third and fourth quarters, as the company laps the second half of 2015, when revenue growth began to accelerate. But they also said they were doubling down on video, which Facebook expects will drive growth in years to come.

Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said then that Facebook would evolve into a “video-first” company by drawing from the same playbook that brought them success on mobile phones. Executives predict that within five years, most of what people consume online will be video.

For Facebook, more video means a better chance to seize television ad dollars—a roughly $70 billion market in the U.S. alone. The social network is also pouring money into its Facebook Live product, which analysts say will allow Facebook to boost the amount of original content shared by users on the platform.

Video isn’t the only source of growth for Facebook. It is also taking steps to eventually monetize what Mr. Zuckerberg has called its “family of apps” including the two messaging apps WhatsApp and Messenger as well as the photo-sharing app Instagram. Instagram’s advertising push seems to be going strong as well, analysts say, and Credit Suisse analysts estimate it could generate revenue of $3.2 billion this year from its more than 500,000 advertisers.

Can Facebook Conquer TV?

Nov. 2, 2016

The third quarter has shown that Facebook has succeeded in extracting huge revenue growth at the expense of print media. Now the social network must dominate new frontiers.

Facebook reported third-quarter earnings and revenue Wednesday that beat Wall Street’s expectations. Revenue climbed 56% from the previous year to $7.01 billion as advertising revenue grew 59% to $6.82 billion. As impressive as those numbers were, they each represented a deceleration from the previous quarter. Shares fell after hours.

The slowdown shouldn’t have come as a surprise to investors. Facebook said during its second-quarter earnings report that advertising revenue would grow more slowly for the rest of the year. The company said Wednesday that it is reaching the limit of the number of ads it can cram into users’ feeds, which would cause ad revenue growth to come down “meaningfully” after mid- 2017.

Facebook has positioned video as its next growth vehicle. The goal would be to tap into TV ad dollars, helping the company reaccelerate its growth. But luring away that revenue could prove more difficult than conquering print. TV remains the best platform in the minds of many marketers for reaching a large number of people. Meanwhile, new Internet-based TV services and mobile-video offerings from the likes of Dish Network, AT&T, Verizon Communications and Hulu could keep ad dollars from leaving.

On November 18, 2016, the Board of Directors of Facebook, Inc. (the “Company”) authorized the Company to repurchase up to $6.0 billion of its Class A common stock. The repurchase program will go into effect in the first quarter of 2017 and does not have a fixed expiration. The timing and actual number of shares repurchased will depend on a variety of factors, including price, general business and market conditions, and alternative investment opportunities.

Facebook's Revenue Growth Is Expected to Slow -- Earnings Preview

Feb. 1, 2017

Facebook Inc. is scheduled to announce its fourth-quarter earnings after the market closes Wednesday. Here is what you need to know:

EARNINGS FORECAST:

Facebook is expected to report earnings per share, excluding certain expenses, of $1.31, according to Thomson Reuters data, compared with 79 cents a year earlier.

REVENUE FORECAST:

Analysts predict Facebook will report quarterly revenue of $8.51 billion, up about 46% from last year's $5.84 billion. That would be the slowest rate of revenue growth since the third quarter of 2015.

What to Watch

NEW GROWTH DRIVERS:

Facebook expects higher spending and slower revenue growth this year. Investors are likely to put pressure on the company to explain its plans to shore up its bottom line. In November, Facebook said its growth in ad revenue would drop "meaningfully" in 2017 as it stops stuffing more ads in users' news feeds. It is also planning to hire more engineers, buy original video content and invest in data centers this year. According to Nomura analyst Anthony DiClemente, job openings at Facebook grew 60% in the fourth quarter--the fastest rate since the first quarter of 2015. One major source of growth is likely to be Instagram, the photo-sharing app that Facebook bought for $1 billion in 2012. JMP Securities analyst Ron Josey estimates that Instagram generated $856 million in revenue in the fourth quarter.

VIDEO-FIRST STRATEGY:

Facebook is investing more heavily in video for growth. For now, social media accounts for 6.5% of advertisers' budgets, compared with the more than one-third captured by television, SunTrust analyst Rodney Hull said. But if Facebook were to seize even 1 percentage point of TV's share in the U.S., its 2017 ad revenue would jump 2%, or $700 million, Mr. Hull wrote. Facebook is promoting longer videos in its news feed, has started to introduce a video tab within its app and, as The Wall Street Journal reported, has been working on a video-centric app for set-top boxes.

FAKE NEWS:

Facebook attracted an enormous amount of criticism for its role in the proliferation of fake news on its site during the U.S. presidential campaign. Since then, the company has taken steps to fight fake news, including through partnerships with third-party fact-checkers who can flag blatantly false stories to be demoted in the news feed. The fake-news controversy won't hit Facebook's financials yet, Mr. Hull noted, but it does raise questions about the rising complexity of the newsfeed algorithm and its effect on users' confidence.

Facebook is looking to take you out to the ball game this summer. The company is reportedly in talks with Major League Baseball to livestream games. Facebook would show one game per week for this upcoming season.

Facebook Takes Direct Aim At Snap

Another week, another Snapchat copy from Facebook.

April 11, 2017 3:07 p.m. ET

Just when you thought there weren’t any more ways that Facebook could copy Snapchat, Facebook found another way to copy Snapchat.

Facebook, which owns Instagram, announced Tuesday that it would be giving Instagram users the ability to send disappearing photos to a single friend or to a select group of friends, essentially Snap’s core function. Previously, disappearing messages were only a part of Instagram Stories, in photos or videos are visible to all of your followers.

You’ll be able to view the disappearing content in the same Instagram Direct thread as you see your permanent messages.

This new Instagram feature addresses one big reason why users hesitated to post Instagram Stories: Folks with hundreds of followers -- including brands, local stores, and some friends -- weren’t always so crazy about sharing raw footage of their lives with strangers. It feels more normal to share with a small group of close friends.

Of course, another thing stopping people from posting disappearing stories to Instagram is that they feel Facebook is trying too hard to clone Snapchat. Instagram can’t do anything about that. But the real opportunity for the company is not in getting Snap users to migrate over, but rather in attracting non-users.

And Instagram Direct has a bunch of those. The messaging service now has 375 million users. (Snap had 158 million daily active users at last count.)

Big Picture: Instagram’s new disappearing-direct-messaging feature addresses a key area that made people hesitant to try Instagram Stories.