Tech: Facebook beats across the board with $8 billion revenue for Q1 (FB)

Facebook grew its revenue by 49% to $8 billion for its first-quarter earnings, beating Wall Street’s expectation of $7.83 billion.

Facebook grew its revenue by 49% to $8 billion for its first-quarter earnings, beating Wall Street’s expectation of $7.83 billion.

The company also beat expectations for earnings per share with $1.04 vs. $0.87 expected. Facebook's mobile ad revenue accounted for 85% of its business during the quarter and it came just shy of reaching 2 billion users with 1.93 billion.

This quarter marks the first time that Facebook is "no longer reporting non-GAAP expenses, income, tax rate, and earnings per share," the company said in a statement. Shares of Facebook immediately dipped 2% on the news, but eventually flattened out.

Here are the key numbers from Facebook’s Q1:

• EPS (GAAP): $1.04 vs. $0.87 expected, up 73% from the year-ago period.
• Revenue: $8.03 billion vs. $7.83 billion expected, up 49% from the year-ago period.
• Monthly active users: 1.94 billion, up from 1.86 billion last quarter.
• Daily active users: 1.28 billion, up from 1.23 billion last quarter.

All eyes are on what Facebook has cautioned to be a "meaningful" slowdown in revenue growth this year as it reaches the limit of the number of ads it can show in the News Feed. Luckily, the company is starting to ramp up with Instagram and video ads, which Wall Street sees as two key growth drivers.

In an interview with Business Insider on Wednesday, Facebook CFO Dave Wehner reiterated his previous comments that revenue growth from the News Feed will slow going into the second quarter. He said that the main drivers for revenue growth going forward will be Instagram and video ads, although the company's midroll video ads are still in their “earlier days” of testing.

Facebook doesn't break out how much money it makes from Instagram, but eMarketer predicts the app to reach $3.9 billion in ad revenue this year, up 106% from the year prior.

Looking ahead, Wehner said the company plans to significantly increase its spending as it hires more employees and builds more data centers and internet infrastructure projects. He said that 1,700 new employees were added during the first quarter, a company record.

Here are some charts showing Facebook's growth from Q1:

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Facebook grew its revenue by 49% to $8 billion for its first-quarter earnings, beating Wall Street’s expectation of $7.83 billion. Read Full Story