Facebook's earnings rise in third quarter, with 1.55 billion users

Buoyed by its mobile-advertising efforts, the social networking site Facebook has posted 11.3 percent profit in its third quarter results - at $4.5 billion in revenue from $4.04 billion last quarter with a significant increase in the number of its active users.

Facebook's mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 78 percent of advertising revenue for the third quarter of 2015 - up from 66 percent of advertising revenue in the third quarter of 2014, the California-based company said in a statement on Wednesday.

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While the 11-year-old company registered 1.55 billion monthly active users (MAUs) - an increase of 14 percent year-over-year-- Mobile MAUs were 1.39 billion as of September 30 - an increase of 23 percent year-over-year. There are now 1.01 billion daily active users sharing status updates and checking on other people.

"We had a good quarter and got a lot done. We are focused on innovating and investing for the long term to serve our community and connect the entire world," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. Facebook's GAAP net income for the last three months -- its real profit - was $896 million compared to $719 million last quarter.

While capital expenditures for the third quarter of 2015 were $780 million, cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities were $15.83 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2015, the statement read. Facebook has added four million users in its money-making core market of the US and Canada.

The company has rolled out several aggressive features in last few months. If you use Facebook on iPhone, you can now read thousands of Instant Articles every day in your News Feed. Instant Articles are simply articles already in your Facebook News Feed, made faster and richer.

Users will see a lightning bolt on the top right corner of some stories shared in News Feed. The lightning bolt indicates it is an Instant Article. When you tap the story, it will load 10 times faster than a standard mobile web article, the company said in a statement.

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"Instant Articles not only connect readers to stories faster; they also provide a richer reading experience than standard mobile web articles, with dynamic features that make the content more fluid, interactive and immersive," Facebook product manager Michael Reckhow said.

Source IANS