The contribution of mobile advertising to Facebook’s ad revenues is increasing: Around 73% of Facebook’s ad revenues for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 was from mobile ads, up from 59% contribution in the same quarter last year and 69% contribution in the previous quarter.
Facebook posted total ad revenues of $3.32 billion for the quarter, up 46% year-on-year (YoY). This essentially means that Facebook generated mobile ad revenues of around $2.42 billion for the quarter.
While Facebook doesn’t disclose any region-wise split for its mobile ad revenues, the company mentions that Asia-Pacific contributed about $524 million of overall advertising revenues for the quarter.
User base metrics
Facebook has reported 471 million monthly active users (MAUs) in Asia for the quarter, up 4.9% from 449 million MAUs in the previous quarter and up 20.8% from 390 million MAUs in the same quarter last year. The company doesn’t provide any country-specific breakup of its user base, although India is the largest market for Facebook outside the United States and the company informed MediaNama that it had 118 million monthly active users in the country, as of December last year.
The average Daily Active Users (DAUs) in Asia was at 270 million for the quarter, up from 253 million DAUs sequentially and 216 million DAUs in the same quarter last year. It’s worth noting that Facebook had told this publication that over 89% of Facebook’s daily active users in India come from mobile, as of December last year.
Overall, Facebook’s monthly active user base grew to 1.44 billion, up 3.4% from 1.39 billion MAUs in the previous quarter and up 13% YoY. The average DAUs grew to 936 million for the quarter, from 890 million in the previous quarter and 802 million in the same quarter last year.
Mobile MAUs
Mobile MAUs also saw a modest growth to 1.24 billion for the quarter, from 1.18 billion MAUs in the previous quarter and 1 billion MAUs in the same quarter last year.
Similar to the past few quarters, Facebook saw a significant growth in its mobile-only users (users who accessed Facebook only through their mobile apps or their mobile site) to 581 million MAUs for the quarter, from 526 million in the previous quarter.
Mobile DAUs also saw a significant growth to 798 million for the quarter, from 745 million in the previous quarter and 609 million in the same quarter last year.
Facebook’s Asia ARPU declines
Facebook’s Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for Asia region declined to $1.18 for the quarter from $1.27 in the previous quarter, but up from $0.93 in the same quarter last year. Also, ARPU for Asia continues to be the second lowest for Facebook, only behind Rest of World which had an ARPU of $0.80.
The overall ARPU also declined to $2.50 for the quarter, from $2.81 in the previous quarter. Facebook currently has the highest ARPU in US & Canada which was at $8.32 for the quarter, though it was also down from $9 in the previous quarter.
This fall in ARPU in Q1 2015, or rather the significant increase in ARPU in the previous quarter, is most likely the result of the holiday season.
Operational highlights
– Revealed that Facebook is in talks with a dozen media organizations, including BuzzFeed, The New York Times and National Geographic to host content on the social network. Facebook intends to begin testing the new format in the coming months and is discussing ways with publishers to make money through advertising which will run along side news content.
– Announced plans of allowing peer-to-peer money transfers over its Messenger application, starting with United States. Earlier had enabled developers to develop apps for Facebook’s Messenger, and launched around 40 new apps for photos, videos, audio clips and GIFs among others.
– Launched ‘Creative Accelerator’, a program for advertisers to develop mobile-ad campaigns. This will allow advertisers to tailor campaigns based on the user’s region and device used in developing countries. Advertisers will also be able to develop and send rich media ads, such as videos, to users with faster Internet connections and still images and other relevant media, for users accessing Facebook on a weaker connection.
– Introduced a new Relevance Scores feature to help advertisers better target audiences and show a relevancy score for each campaign. The score will tell advertisers how the entire social network thought of the ads and offer a score ranging from one to ten. Ten meaning that it is very relevant to a target audience, and one meaning that it is not relevant at all.
– Rolled out Internet.org in India, in partnership with Reliance Communications.
Financials
Facebook reported total Asia revenues of $542 million for the quarter, marginally down 2.1% from $554 million in the previous quarter, but up 54% from $354 million in the same quarter last year. The region now represents 15.3% of Facebook’s total revenues which was at $3.5 billion for the quarter.
The company’s overall net profit was at $512 million for the quarter, down significantly from $701 million profit in the previous quarter and down 20% from $642 million profit in the same quarter last year.
Payment Revenues: Facebook’s payment revenues also declined to $226 million for the quarter, from $257 million in the previous quarter and down 5% from $237 million in the same quarter last year.
Cashflow: At the end of Q1 2015, Facebook has a total cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $12.41 billion.
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