Facebook’s never had more users, made more money per user than in Q2 2016
Facebook grew the amount of money it makes per person using its service twice as fast as it grew the number of new people using its service.
Facebook is growing the amount of money it makes per person using its service twice as fast as it’s getting new people to use its service — and it’s getting a lot of new people to use its service.
Not only did Facebook grow its daily audience by 17 percent year over year in the second quarter to number 1.13 billion and its monthly audience by 15 percent to 1.71 billion people, but it grew the amount of money it makes per user by 38 percent year over year to hit $3.82. And the average amount of money Facebook makes from showing each of those people ads increased at a slightly steeper clip, up 42 percent year over year to $3.71.
In general, Facebook’s second-quarter earnings report is an array of increases. The company’s total revenue climbed by 59 percent year over year to hit $6.4 billion. Its ad revenue rose by 63 percent year over year to reach $6.2 billion. And mobile ads accounted for an even bigger share of Facebook’s ad revenue — 84 percent in Q2 2016, compared to 76 percent in Q2 2015 — after Facebook’s mobile ad revenue grew by 80 percent to somewhere around $5.2 billion (Facebook doesn’t specify how much mobile ad money it made, only its share of total ad revenue).
Facebook’s ad business continues to grow, both in terms of how much advertisers are willing to pay for its ads and how many ads it’s able to sell. In the second quarter, Facebook’s average ad price increased by 9 percent year over year, and the number of ad impressions it served increased by 49 percent.
Advertiser demand for Facebook’s ads was “particularly strong” in the second quarter, said Facebook CFO David Wehner during the company’s earnings call on Wednesday. He attributed the price increase to more of Facebook’s ads appearing in the news feed, especially on mobile, which costs more than Facebook’s desktop-only right-rail ads. The ad impressions increase resulted from more people checking Facebook more often, as well as Facebook showing more ads per person, he said.
And to round things out, Facebook’s second quarter further reinforced how the company had turned what was once considered its biggest weakness — mobile — into its biggest asset.
- Mobile’s share of monthly users: 92 percent (88 percent a year ago)
- Mobile’s share of daily users: 91 percent (87 percent a year ago)
- Share of monthly users who are only on mobile: 61 percent (44 percent a year ago)
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