Facebook topped $1.5 billion in quarterly profit at end of last year

SAN FRANCISCO, California – Facebook on Wednesday reported that its quarterly profit more than doubled as its ranks of users swelled during the past year.

“Our community continued to grow and our business is thriving,” said Facebook co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg in releasing quarterly results for the world’s biggest social network, which now has a user base of nearly 1.6 billion.

Facebook reported a profit of $1.56 billion in the final three months of 2015 as compared with making $701 million in the same period a year earlier.

Meanwhile, revenue in the quarter that ended on Dec. 31 rose to $5.84 billion from $3.85 billion the prior year.

The results showed Facebook’s growing power in online advertising, especially on mobile devices. Mobile accounted for some 80 percent of the network’s ad revenue in the quarter.

Net profit for the full year climbed to $3.7 billion from $2.9 billion in 2014, while revenue jumped to $17.9 billion from $12.5 billion.

“2015 was a great year for Facebook,” Zuckerberg said. “We continue to invest in better serving our community, building our business, and connecting the world.”

An average of 1.04 billion people used Facebook daily in December in a 17 percent rise from the same month the prior year. The number of monthly active users in December was 1.59 billion in a 14 percent climb from a year earlier, according to the social network.