Facebook userbase touches 1.23 billion in 2013

Social networking giant Facebook has seen its monthly active user base growing 16 per cent year-on-year to 1.23 billion for the quarter ended December, driven by strong addition across Asia and other emerging markets.

The number of people using Facebook on a daily basis increased from 139 million to 757 million at the end of 2013.

"It was a great end to the year for Facebook. In 2013, we added 172 million monthly actives and 139 million daily actives. That means that our daily engagement continues to increase.

In the last quarter, more than 60 per cent of our monthly actives visited Facebook daily. Given the size of our community, we're very excited about this pace of growth," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.

Asia and Rest of the World accounted for 744 million monthly active users (MAU), while Europe, US and Canada accounted for 282 million and 201 million MAUs, respectively.

The US-based firm, which reported its Q4 and full year financial performance, said its net profit grew to $523 million in Q4 2013 from $64 million in the year-ago period, while revenues rose 63 per cent to $2.59 billion in the quarter under review.

Revenue for the full year 2013 was up 55 per cent to $7.87 billion, while net income was up to $2.5 billion.

"Our total revenue (2013) grew 63 per cent y-o-y, led by 76 per cent growth in advertising revenue. Approximately 53 per cent of our ad revenue came from mobile. This is not only the first time we crossed the 50 per cent threshold, but it's also our first billion-dollar mobile quarter," Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said.

Revenue from advertising increased 76 per cent to $2.34 billion, of which mobile advertising represented about 53 per cent (up from 23 per cent in Q4 2012).

The company's capex stood at $483 million in Q4 and $1.37 billion for 2013, it said.