Facebook exceeded estimates in 2015’s third quarter, amassing impressive sales of $4.5 billion. The social network’s daily users also surpassed a billion, according to the freshly-reported quarter results.
Data compiled by Bloomberg indicated that analysts had, on average, estimated $4.37 billion in sales for the world’s largest social media site. Making its results for the quarter public on Wednesday, Facebook also revealed that its daily users reached 1.01 billion, while monthly users were at 1.55 billion.
The increases in user numbers doubtless helped Facebook to boost its advertising revenues. New marketing initiatives, such as more video ads, also seem to have played a part; Facebook’s average per-user revenue hit $2.97, a rise of 24%. These new quarter results were well-received by the markets; Facebook’s shares jumped by 5.2% in extended trading.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg, pictured above, still has his sights on expanding Facebook to China, despite the site being blocked in the country. He insisted: “You can’t have a mission of connecting the world and leave out the biggest country,” acknowledging: “That is a situation we are going to need to find a way forward on.”