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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he has conquered one big area of concern for investors: mobile.
Now he just needs to get a grip on expenses.
The company yesterday crowed about its growth in mobile advertising and the fact that a majority of its users are accessing the social network via mobile devices.
“Today there is no argument — Facebook is a mobile company,” Zuckerberg told analysts during a conference call to discuss fourth-quarter results.
In the latest quarter, 23 percent of ad revenue came from mobile, up from 14 percent in the third quarter.
Facebook topped 1.06 billion users last quarter, up from 1.01 billion in the third quarter. The number of mobile users was 680 million, up from 604 million.
Making the mobile transition was a big concern for the company when it went public last year as it hadn’t as yet sold any mobile ads.
Still, investors hoped to see an even bigger mix of revenue from mobile given the larger concentration of users, analysts said.
Overall revenue was up 40 percent year-over-year, to $1.85 billion, topping Wall Street’s expectations.
At the same time, costs are rising faster as the company spends big to hire and build new businesses. Profit tumbled 79 percent to $64 million as expenses jumped 82 percent.
The stock sank 4.2 percent in after-hours trading to $29.95.
Facebook shares have been on the upswing, rising about 70 percent since September. They debuted at $38, but then skidded to less than $20.
Facebook and Google are racing to dominate the mobile Web. Google CEO Larry Page recently called out Facebook for developing what he said were bad products.
Yesterday, Zuckerberg referenced his rival when talking about how Facebook developed for Google Android phones.
The relationship “isn’t one where the companies really talk,” Zuckerberg said.