Record fourth quarter results give Facebook shares a new high

Riding on its mobile advertising business and the growing number of users on its bouquet of apps, the social networking giant has beaten all revenue forecasts by posting a record fourth-quarter results for 2015, leading to a steep jump in its shares in after-hour trading.

According to a Facebook statement release late on Wednesday, revenue in the fourth quarter (ending December 31) for 2015 grew about 52 percent to $5.84 billion from $3.85 billion in the same period in 2014.

"2015 was a great year for Facebook. Our community continued to grow and our business is thriving," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO.

"We continue to invest in better serving our community, building our business and connecting the world," he posted.

Revenue for the full year 2015 was $17.93 billion, an increase of 44 percent year-over-year.

"Income from operations for the full year 2015 was $6.23 billion. While net income for the full year 2015 was $3.69 billion, free cash flow for 2015 was $6.08 billion," Facebook announced.

The company achieved these results despite investing hugely in projects related to artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) as well as extending free internet access to the poor across the world.

Mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 80 percent of advertising revenue for the fourth quarter of 2015, up from 69 percent of advertising revenue in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Daily active users (DAUs) were 1.04 billion on average for December 2015, an increase of 17 percent year-over-year.

Mobile DAUs were 934 million on average for December 2015, an increase of 25 percent year-over-year.

"Monthly active users (MAUs) were 1.59 billion, an increase of 14 percent year-over-year and mobile MAUs were 1.44 billion, an increase of 21 percent year-over-year," the company added.