Daily Times

NEW YORK: Facebook’s numbers show it has 1.71 billion users at the end June 2016, which represents a growth of 17 per cent annually.

Facebook has announced its second quarter results for 2016, which highlight just how dominant mobile is for the social media network. The company beat Wall Street expectations on revenue and growth with mobile advertising revenue representing approximately 84 per cent of advertising revenue in the quarter. Facebook’s overall revenue stood at $6.44 billion.

While mobile advertising revenue continues to rise, Facebook user base is now well ahead of all rivals, and the company’s Daily Active Users (DAUs) and Monthly Active Users (MAUs) continue to grow. According to Facebook’s numbers, it now has 1.13 billion DAUs on average for June 2016, which represents a growth of 17 per cent year-over-year and mobile DAUs stand at 1.03 billion (representing a 22 per cent annual growth), again highlighting how important mobile has been to the company’s success.

Facebook’s over all monthly active users (MAUs) stood at 1.71 billion (15 per cent annual increase) and mobile MAUs stood at 1.57 billion (20 per cent year-over-year increase). But Facebook isn’t the only product from the company, which is in the 1 billion user club.

Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp now have 1 billion users each and Instagram has reached 500 million users mark on a monthly basis. The photo-sharing app’s DAUs stand at 300 million. When it comes to user base and advertising, Facebook is a social media behemoth like none other, and mobile is what is boosting its growth.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg also revealed in a separate post that the company has over 60 million businesses using Facebook Pages and Instagram each month, which shows how important it has become as an advertising platform for businesses hoping to reach new customers.

Sandberg in her post gave examples of two businesses: Clothing company Shinestywhich has seen a 14x increase in sales after campaigns on Facebook and Instagram, and Lighting Etc. which is a third generation family-owned business in Fort Worth, Texas that has seen 40 per cent increase in revenue thanks to campaigns on the two platforms.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also revealed that the social network is now looking at a future “where video is at the heart of all our services.” He also revealed time spent per person on their platforms has doubled year-on-year, although the numbers currently don’t include WhatsApp

On videos, Facebook turned on ‘Live video’ button for all users, and Zuckerberg revealed that the viral video of Candace Payne’s Chewbacca mask was viewed 160 million times on the network. Of course, this is a small number compared to average views on YouTube, but Facebook has only recently turned the spotlight on videos and started giving them more prominence on the News Feed.

Zuckerberg also revealed that more than four million 360 photos have been shared on Facebook since it was launched, and one million more are being shared weekly.

On Oculus, Facebook says more than 1 million people a month are on the platform thank to the Gear VR, in which Oculus Rift has partnered with Samsung. Zuckerberg also confirmed in the earnings call that the company has filled all of preorders for Oculus Rift.

Facebook results highlight one thing: Mobile is where most of its advertising is coming from, and the company is turning to videos as its future mode of content.