As to be expected with April drawing to a close, this week has seen a number of high-profile first quarter results coming through and from the likes of T-Mobile, AT&T, Twitter, among others. In particular, the Twitter results were rather interesting as they showed an increase in the number of monthly active users but a decrease in revenue overall. Today, Facebook has announced their quarterly results for Q1, 2016 and it seems on the face of it, there were no revenue issues with these results.
According to the figures coming in, Facebook not only met quarterly expectations but significantly surpassed them. In terms of users, analysts had expected 1.62 billion monthly active users to be declared although the figure now announced came in at the 1.65 billion level, which equated to a 15-percent year-over-year increase. Facebook also announced their daily active users was up 16-percent year-over-year and now totaling 1.09 billion. In terms of how these increases in users translate to revenue, well, Facebook today announced revenue for the quarter in the region of $5.38 billion. To put this into perspective, for the same quarter in 2015, the revenue generated equated to 3.5 billion. Not to mention, this was an even greater increase than the $5.25 billion expected by analysts. Revenue which largely came on the back of mobile and video advertising.
With such across the board expectation-beating figures being announced it seems Facebook has taken the opportunity to also announce a proposal to the way in which shares are allocated. More specifically, a proposal to introduce a Class C share structure. In essence, these C class shares will have all the benefits of the already in use Class A and B shares barring one important aspect – the ability to vote. Essentially, these Class C shares will offer those interested ownership in Facebook, but not the power to make any decisions. A move which has clearly been stated by Facebook to ensure Mark Zuckerberg retains control over the business decisions and direction. However, the implementation of the Class C share structure is one which will still need to be approved by the current shareholders and to try and sweeten the deal, Facebook confirms that pending the shareholders decision, they will be offering Class A and B shareholders two Class C shares for every Class A and B share already held.