Facebook delivers stellar Q4, profit crosses $1 billion

Facebook said its daily active users were 1.04 billion on an average for December 2015, an increase of 17 per cent year on year.

Riding on its massive global reach, Facebook's income continued to soar, with the Silicon Valley-based social media giant reporting a net income of $3.69 billion in 2015 from its operations.

The social network posted more than $ 1 billion in quarterly profit for the first time.

"2015 was a great year for Facebook. Our community continued to grow and our business is thriving," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO.

"We continue to invest in better serving our community, building our business, and connecting the world," he added.

"In 2015, people came together in many different ways on Facebook. We celebrated happy moments, from the Indian Super League to the release of Star Wars. Millions of people rallied to support Nepal after the earthquake, France after the Paris attacks and all those affected by the refugee crisis," Zuckerberg said in a post on Facebook.

"And every day, hundreds of millions of people just used Facebook to connect with loved ones."

He said further: "Our community now has more than 1.59 billion people. More than 1 billion people use Groups. Almost 1 billion people use WhatsApp. More than 19 million who previously had no Internet access are now connected through Internet.org."

According to the disclosure on Wednesday, Facebook's revenue in 2015 stood at $ 17.93 billion, up 44 per cent over last year. Its income from operations in 2015 came in at $6.23 billion.

Facebook said its daily active users were 1.04 billion on an average for December 2015, an increase of 17 per cent year on year.

The count of mobile daily active users was 934 million on an average for December, a growth of 25 per cent on year.

Facebook said in the last quarter ended December, mobile advertising revenue accounted for nearly 80 per cent of the total ad pie, up from 69 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2014.

"2015 was the year that Facebook went from being an experiment to a must-buy for advertisers," RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney was quoted as saying by The Wall Street Journal.