Facebook reports strong Q4 as mobile ad sales keep growing

Roughly 69 percent of Facebook's revenue for the quarter ended Dec. 31 came from mobile advertising, the company said Wednesday.

Total revenue for the quarter was $3.85 billion. That was up 49 percent from a year earlier and beat the consensus estimate of $3.77 billion from analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

A year ago, mobile ads accounted for just over a half of Facebook's revenue. But as more people access the service on mobile devices, ads there have proliferated.

"We got a lot done in 2014. Our community continues to grow and we're making progress towards connecting the world," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement.

Net income for the quarter was $701 million, a 34 percent increase from a year earlier, while earnings per share came in at $0.25, up 5 cents.

On a pro forma basis, earnings per share was $0.54, beating analyst estimates of $0.48.

The company also reported a decent increase in its number of users, though the increase was greater for mobile devices. As of Dec. 31, Facebook's monthly active users -- people who log in at least once a month -- were 1.39 billion, up 13 percent. But Facebook's mobile monthly active users rose by 26 percent, to 1.19 billion.

However, Facebook's fourth quarter costs jumped by 87 percent to $2.72 billion.

Revenue for the full year was $12.47 billion, Facebook said, up nearly 60 percent from 2013.

Shares of Facebook stock were trading at around $74.54 in the after market hours, down by more than 2 percent.

Zach Miners covers social networking, search and general technology news for IDG News Service. Follow Zach on Twitter at @zachminers. Zach's e-mail address is zach_miners@idg.com