Facebook again recorded double-digit growth in the third quarter, with revenues rising 59 percent year-on-year to USD 3.20 billion. The number of daily active users on the social network was up 19 percent to 864 million, and monthly users increased 14 percent to 1.35 million. Facebook's strongest growth was again in mobile, where the number of active daily users rose 39 percent to 703 million.
Mobile accounted for 66 percent of its USD 2.96 billion in advertising revenue in the quarter, up from 49 percent the year earlier. Net profit soared 90 percent to USD 806 million with earnings per share up 76 percent to 30 cents. Capex reached USD 482 million, with the free cash flow at USD 766 million. Facebook finished the quarter with total cash of USD 14.25 billion.
Despite the solid results, Facebook's share price fell after the report, due to comments from the company on a conference call with analysts. The company said it plans significant investment in 2015, for hiring and spending on infrastructure, as well as further investment in recent acquisitions WhatsApp and Oculus. CFO David Whener said Facebook's costs would rise 50-70 percent next year, faster than many analysts expected, the Financial Times reports. Costs are already expected to increase 40-50 percent this year, more than the company previously indicated.
Facebook also reported figures for WhatsApp showing widening losses. The messaging service had a loss of USD 232 million in the first half of this year.
