The New York Times: Mobile Ads Fuel Facebook’s Strong Sales Increases

Facebook’s growth appears to know few limits. And even when one source of growth is set to slow down, the social network is ready with another.

The Silicon Valley company on Wednesday reported blockbuster second-quarter earnings, with strong increases across almost every measure. Facebook said sales totaled $6.44 billion for the quarter, up 59 percent from a year ago, while profit almost tripled to $2.06 billion.

The rise was driven by strong mobile ad sales, as well as a steady ascent in its number of users. Facebook now counts 1.71 billion monthly active users, up 15 percent from a year ago. And in a sign of how indispensable the social network is to people, the amount of money the company can squeeze from each user globally jumped to $3.82, up from $2.76 a year earlier. In the United States and Canada, Facebook’s most valuable markets, the company makes an average of $14.34 per user.

The performance made Facebook a bright spot in a mixed field of technology company earnings this month. On Tuesday, Twitter, once seen as a social media rival of Facebook’s, posted weak second-quarter earnings, including decelerating revenue growth and only a small increase in users.

To maintain its rocket-ship trajectory and to avoid the pitfalls of its counterparts, Facebook said it was also looking ahead and betting on what it hoped would be a major business driver in the years to come: video and video advertising.

“We see a world where video is first, with video at the heart of all of our apps and services,” Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, said in a conference call with investors.