Facebook profits jump on advertising revenue hike

Facebook has reported a jump in profits in the third quarter on the back of increased advertising sales.

The social media firm reported a net income rise of 11% to $891m (£579m) in July to September, compared with $806m in the same period last year.

Facebook also reported that developing markets had seen strong growth in the number of users.

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg said the company was "focused on innovating and investing for the long term".

Facebook's product

The world's largest social media site reported 60 million new monthly active users in the third quarter, bringing its global users to 1.55 billion.

A growth in monthly active users means a potentially larger audience for advertisers using Facebook.

Ad revenue was key to Facebook's third-quarter performance, growing 45% to $4.3bn (£2.8bn).

Investors have been looking to see how Facebook's increasing emphasis on video would pay off.

Facebook reported eight billion video views per day from 500 million people, compared with four billion views in April.

In addition, the company has said it wants to increase advertising revenue from Instagram and Whatsapp in the past, but investors have been anxious to see specific plans.

The firm did not disclose Instagram's ad sales figures. But the app is expected to bring in $595m in mobile ad revenues this year, research firm eMarketer said.

Facebook's website and Instagram photo-sharing app, which opened up its platform to all advertisers in the third quarter, account for more than one in five minutes spent on mobile devices in the US, chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said.

Facebook was also looking to show strong growth in its mobile user numbers, with mobile popular in developing countries. The number of mobile daily users was up 27% in September to 894 million.