Facebook's financial report: Facebook's revenue in Q1 2012 was $1.06 billion, down 30% from the previous quarter

On April 24, 2012, Facebook recently submitted a regulatory document to the SEC, disclosing that its revenue in the first quarter was $1.06 billion, up 45% from the same period last year; its net profit was $206 million, down 30% from the previous quarter and 12% from the same period last year. Facebook's net profit fell year-on-year, mainly due to the sharp increase in the company's expenses.

Facebook's Q1 revenue was $1.058 billion, down 6% from the previous quarter

Facebook's revenue in the first quarter of 2012 was $1.058 billion, down 6% from $1.131 billion in the previous quarter and down 45% from $731 million in the same period last year. Facebook has 3.2 billion comments and 300 million new photos uploaded every day.

Facebook's daily active users increased from 372 million a year ago and 483 million in December last year to 526 million. Monthly active users increased from 680 million in the same period last year and 845 million in December last year to 901 million. The number of mobile users reached 488 million. Facebook's average revenue per user was $1.21, up 7% year-on-year.

Facebook's Q1 advertising revenue was $872 million, accounting for 82% of total revenue

Facebook's advertising revenue in the first quarter of 2012 was $872 million, down 8% from $943 million in the previous quarter and up 37% from $637 million in the same period last year. Advertising revenue accounted for 82% of total revenue.

Zynga accounted for 15% of Facebook's first-quarter revenue, down from 19% a year earlier. Of that 15%, about 11% came from the 30% cut it gets from selling virtual items through Zynga games, or advertising revenue that Zynga pays Facebook directly.

The other 4% comes from revenue from displaying ads next to Zynga content. Facebook also continued to emphasize in the document that a bad relationship with Zynga would harm the company's performance. Industry insiders pointed out that although Zynga recently launched its own game network to reduce its over-reliance on Facebook, Facebook still provides payment services to Zynga's network, which means that the latter must still pay Facebook a 30% revenue share.

Facebook's Q1 costs and expenses were $677 million, up 97% year-on-year

Facebook's costs and expenses in the first quarter of 2012 were $677 million, up 16% from $583 million in the same period last year, and up 97% from $343 million in the same period last year. Facebook's payment and fee revenue in the first quarter was $186 million, up $94 million from the same period last year, accounting for 17.6% of the company's total revenue, up from 12.9% in the same period last year.

Facebook's first quarter revenue costs increased by $110 million, or 66%, compared with the same period last year. The increase in revenue costs was mainly affected by the increase in expenses caused by the expansion of data center business, including an increase of $59 million in depreciation, an increase in employee wages and a 66% increase in the number of employees.

Facebook's sales and marketing expenses in the first quarter increased by $91 million, or 134%, compared with the same period last year. The increase in sales and marketing expenses was mainly due to the increase in the number of employees and the increase in marketing activities for advertisers. In addition, Facebook's equity incentive expenses in the first quarter increased by $23 million.

Facebook's R&D spending in the first quarter increased by $96 million, or 168%, compared with the same period last year. The increase in R&D spending was mainly due to a surge in equity incentive spending from $4 million to $60 million. In addition, the number of Facebook's technical, design, product management and other technical employees in the first quarter increased by 55% year-on-year.

Facebook's Q1 operating profit was $381 million, with an operating profit margin of 36%

Facebook's operating profit in the first quarter of 2012 was US$381 million, down 30% from US$548 million in the previous quarter, and its operating profit margin was 36%, down 12 percentage points from the previous quarter.

Facebook's net profit in the first quarter was $205 million, down 32% from $302 million in the previous quarter and down 12% from $233 million in the same period last year. Facebook's net profit fell year-on-year, mainly due to a significant increase in the company's expenses, including an increase in data center expenses, an increase in the number of sales and marketing personnel, and an increase in the number of R&D personnel.