Facebook Q1 results soar

The company earned $642 million, or 25 cents per share, in the January-March quarter

Facebook's earnings nearly tripled and revenue grew sharply in the first quarter, surpassing Wall Street's expectations thanks to an 82% increase in advertising revenue.

It was the fourth quarter in a row that Facebook beat forecasts as it continues to barrel ahead in mobile advertising at a time when nearly 80% of its users are accessing it on smartphones and other portable gadgets.

The world's biggest online social network said yesterday that it earned $642 million, or 25 cents per share, in the January-March quarter, up from $219 million, or 9 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.

Adjusted earnings, which exclude stock compensation expenses and other costs, were $885 million, or 34 cents per share, in the latest quarter.

Facebook's revenue was $2.5 billion, up 71% from $1.46 billion in the same period a year ago.

Analysts, on average, were expecting adjusted earnings of 24 cents per share on revenue of $2.36 billion, according to a poll by FactSet.

Shares of Menlo Park, California-based Facebook climbed $2.34, or 3.8%, to $63.71 in extended trading after the results came out. The stock had closed down $1.67, or 2.7%, at $61.36 amid a broader market decline.

There were 1.28 billion monthly Facebook users at the end of March, up 15% from a year earlier. The number of users who log in every day increased 21% to 802 million.

The number of Facebook users who log in at least once a month using mobile devices climbed 34% to surpass 1 billion for the first time. Daily mobile users were 609 million, up 43% from a year ago.

Advertising revenue totalled $2.27 billion. Of this, mobile advertising accounted for $1.34 billion, or 59%. That's a bigger share than in the fourth quarter of 2013, the first time mobile accounted for more than half of Facebook's ad revenue, at 53%.

Facebook held a 6% share of worldwide digital ad revenues last year, according to research firm eMarketer, which expects the company's share to grow to nearly 7% this year.

Google, in comparison, garnered 32% of worldwide digital ad spending in 2013 and is expected to drop slightly to a fraction below that number by the end of 2014.

On the mobile front, Facebook accounted for nearly 15% of worldwide ad revenue and is expected to steal some of Google's share this year to grow to 22%.

In comparison, Google's share was 49% last year and is expected to drop to about 47% by 2014's end.