Facebook earnings report: users are about to exceed 2 billion, revenue increased by nearly 50%

Facebook's first quarter 2017 financial report shows that this globally expanding social giant still maintains a relatively high growth rate in both users and revenue.

The number of monthly active users worldwide has reached 1.936 billion, and is about to break 2 billion, accounting for 27% of the world's population.

In March 2017, Facebook had approximately 1.936 billion active users worldwide, accounting for 27% of the world's 7.2 billion population. The growth in users from the Asia-Pacific region was encouraging in the first quarter, mainly due to product improvements, Internet.org, and data business promotions in markets such as India.

In addition to Facebook's flagship app, Messenger has more than 1.2 billion monthly active users, and Instagram has more than 700 million users using it every month.

Daily active users reached 1.284 billion, with a DAU/MAU ratio of 66%. Users' stickiness to Facebook has not decreased. In order to attract more users, improve stickiness, and maintain its advantage in the competition, Facebook has enhanced the status of the camera, allowing users to shoot and share videos more conveniently. Facebook emphasizes that its VR camera is more open than others and is an important platform.

Revenue increased 49% year-on-year, with strong growth in advertising and decline in payment and other businesses

Facebook's revenue in the first quarter reached US$8.032 billion, a year-on-year increase of 49%, of which advertising revenue increased by 51% year-on-year to US$7.857 billion, while payment and other business revenue decreased by 3% to 175 million yuan.

In terms of revenue contribution, Facebook's flagship app is still the locomotive, while the revenue contribution from Instagram is increasing. Whatsapp and messenger are still not commercialized. Facebook's current task is to enhance the connection between users and businesses through these two platforms, and will consider monetization later.

Although Facebook delivered good growth in the first quarter, the company once again emphasized that adload, which had driven revenue growth significantly in the past, will further weaken in the next quarter, which has also triggered market concerns about Facebook's revenue growth slowdown.

In the first quarter, the number of active Facebook advertisers reached 5 million, and the number of active public pages reached 70 million.

North America's revenue contribution remains strong, and Asia-Pacific market is rising

In terms of revenue contribution, the North American market still contributes most of Facebook's revenue (nearly half), the European market contributes 24%, the Asia-Pacific market contributes 17%, and other regions contribute 10%, but the growth rate of the Asia-Pacific region and other markets is better than that of the North American and European markets.

The per capita revenue contribution of North American users is four times the global average

In the first quarter, the per capita revenue contribution of the North American market was US$17.07, more than four times the global average of US$4.23. In contrast, with the improvement of people's living standards in other regions and the further improvement of the Internet development, Facebook's revenue-generating ability still has a lot of room for growth.

The cost structure continued to improve, with operating costs, R&D and marketing expenses accounting for a year-on-year decrease

Operating costs were 14%, down 2 percentage points from 16% in the same period last year. R&D expenses fell from 25% last year to 23%, and marketing and sales expenses fell to 13%. Overall, Facebook's cost structure continued to improve.

Thanks to cost improvements, Facebook's operating profit margin increased to 41%, up from 37% in the same period last year.

Facebook's net profit in the first quarter was US$3.064 billion, a year-on-year increase of 76%, and a net profit margin of 38%.