Facebook Beats Estimates in Q4 With $3.85B Revenue and user growth Up to 3.2% QOQ to hit 1.39B.

VENTURES- AFRICA – Facebook, the largest and most visited social media website, has exceeded the set estimate for its revenue in 10th straight quarter in Q4 2014. It now has 1.393 billion users, up 3.18% quarter over quarter, which was a little faster than Q3’s 2.2% but slower than Q2’s 3.125%. The company brought in $0.54 Earnings per Share (EPS) on $3.85 billion in revenue. Mobile made up 69% of ad revenue compared to 66% last quarter, showing its business is now firmly mobile.

This social network counts 864 million daily users and 703 million mobile daily users. It now has 456 million mobile-only users, up 14.2 percent from 399 million last quarter to make up one-third of Facebook’s user base. Mobile growth was 4.67 percent from 1.07 billion to 1.12 billion, which is a significant amount slower than the 5.9 percent that the figure grew last quarter.

In 2014 as a whole, Facebook hit $12.47 billion, an increase of 58% year-over-year, with daily users up 18% from 757 million and total users up 13% from 1.23 billion at the end of 2013.

Overall, the takeaway from this quarter’s earnings is that Facebook is not only just a mobile-first company, it’s becoming a mobile-only company. Over a half billion people now use the social network only from phone. Many of those are feature phone users, though. Facebook’s next big challenge will be figuring out how to squeeze more revenue out of people with less buying power. That could make its efforts to connect the rest of the world a very profitable mission.

Right now, Facebook’s app doesn’t let you edit videos, tap-and-hold-to-capture, shoot multiple shots in a single video, set a cover frame, stabilize the image, or jazz up your creation with drawings, stickers, or audio. Any of those features would be welcomed improvements.

Written by Ojo Olasupo Amos