Facebook’s quarterly net income nearly triples

Facebook has released its first quarter results, announcing its net income has nearly tripled year-on-year to $US642 million ($A690m), up from $US219 million a year earlier.

The social media giant’s quarterly revenues hit $US2.5 billion, up 72% from the same quarter last year, as its operating margin has grown from 26% to 43%.

Advertising remains Facebook’s dominant source of income, growing 82% to $2.27 billion in revenues, with 59% of ad revenue now coming from mobile users.

However, the company’s growth rate has also led to 32% increase in expenses to $US1.43 billion, with the increase attributed largely to the company’s increased headcount and infrastructure spending.

Its non-payroll expenses grew 26% to $US1.13 billion, up from $US895 million during the first quarter of 2013.

During the quarter, Facebook announced a takeover of WhatsApp that saw investors in the mobile messaging service gain $US12 billion in Facebook stock and $US4 billion in cash, with a further $US3 billion in restricted Facebook stock going to WhatsApp’s founders and employees that will vest over the next four years.

Despite the social media mega-deal, Facebook reported cash and marketable securities of  $12.63 billion at the end of the quarter.

In terms of subscribers, the company now claims 1.28 billion monthly active users, up 15% from a year earlier, while mobile monthly active users grew by 34% to 1.01 billion.

Of its total user base, 802 million users use the company’s services daily, with 609 million people using its mobile sites each day.

Alongside the results, Facebook announced chief financial officer David Ebersman is standing aside, to be replaced by David Wehner, who is currently Facebook’s vice president of corporate finance and business planning.

Wehner had previously served as the chief financial officer of online game developer Zynga, before defecting to Facebook in November 2012.

In an official statement, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg described the quarter as a “great start to 2014” for the company.

“We’ve made some long term bets on the future while staying focused on executing and improving our core products and business. We’re in great position to continue making progress towards our mission,” Zuckerberg said.