Analysts were today applauding Facebook’s mobile strategy after the social network beat Wall Street’s expectations, prompting its under-pressure shares to spike.
After the company revealed strong growth in revenues from mobile advertising in its second-quarter results last night, the shares jumped by nearly 20% in after-hours trading.
Facebook said revenues swelled to $1.81 billion (£1.18 billion) in the three months to June, well above the $1.6 billion pencilled in by analysts. Investors were particularly heartened by the improvement in mobile advertising revenues, which represented about 41% of all advertising revenues for the quarter, a marked improvement.
The results “validate Facebook’s mobile strategy”, said analysts at Morgan Stanley, who added that it “is proving to be a desirable channel for direct response advertising”.
“We’ve made good progress growing our community, deepening engagement and delivering strong financial results, especially on mobile,” the social network’s founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said.
