Massive Q2 Revenue Growth at Facebook Comes with 15 Percent Boost in Active Users

Facebook’s Q2 earnings report saw a 186 percent increase in net revenue and a 15 percent growth in monthly active users, highlighting that businesses, whether large or small, cannot take Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) for granted.

Facebook Earnings Report for Q2 2016

Mobile Advertising Drives Facebook’s Success

In the second quarter, monthly active Facebook users hit 1.71 billion. Significantly, more than 90 percent of Facebook users are on mobile devices, where the company generates the bulk of its ad dollars.

“We’ve worked hard to make becoming an advertiser as easy as possible for businesses,” Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer, said in a conference call on the company’s quarterly earnings. She added that the company is “working closely with marketers to make the transition to mobile.”

Sandberg also highlighted the increase in the number of small businesses advertising on the site. Currently, there are 60 million active Facebook business pages.

Facebook’s Growing Focus on Video

During the call, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his company is also focused on becoming “video first.” Facebook executives noted that video is playing a major part in driving up time on the social network. Keeping this in mind, Facebook will make big investments in the days ahead to leverage video.

For marketers, Facebook’s growing emphasis on video is extremely significant for distributing advertising and content.

Facebook’s emphasis on promoting its live-video product, Facebook Live, is also relevant for businesses. The company has also started running tests of mid-roll video ads inside live video broadcasts from its biggest publishing partners.

What’s Next?

Facebook is not just maintaining its phenomenal growth momentum, it’s also crushing competition. Twitter’s disappointing earnings report, which saw the company shares down more than 10 percent, is a clear indication of how rivals are struggling to keep pace with Facebook’s growth story.

But that’s not where Mark Zuckerberg would like to stop, it seems.

The high-profile CEO is looking beyond social networking for Facebook’s next step. The company is investing billions on research and development for high-speed wireless connectivity, drones that beam internet access and virtual reality.

“We believe virtual reality can help people share richer experiences,” stated Zuckerberg. “It’s really early for us for VR, but we’re hitting important milestones.”

Significantly, Facebook’s investment in virtual reality, first with the acquisition of Oculus, is starting to yield results. The first consumer headset hit the market for $599 earlier this year.

With Facebook going all guns blazing, it will be interesting to see what’s the next move of its big competitors.

Facebook Photo via Shutterstock

This article, "Massive Q2 Revenue Growth at Facebook Comes with 15 Percent Boost in Active Users" was first published on Small Business Trends