The real story at Facebook over the past several years is one of execution. Many online companies knew that mobile was the future, but few have transitioned as impressively as Facebook, both in product and business:
- It owns four mobile apps that live in the top ten lists of the world’s app stores, including two it acquired—Instagram (genius deal) and WhatsApp (looking good).
- It now has almost 750 million daily active users on mobile, representing more than 80% of its total daily users.
- It also has more than a half-billion monthly users who only access Facebook on mobile—up more than 75% from a year ago.
- And it now generates 69% of its advertising revenue on mobile, up from effectively zero three years ago, without even really tapping into Instagram.
But here’s one chart that says it all, via long-time mobile industry watcher Benedict Evans, who is a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, the venture capital firm.
This shows Facebook’s mobile ad revenue per mobile daily active user (its most important audience measurement). Specifically, it shows that while Facebook’s mobile user base has exploded, it has learned how to build a business around that audience even faster.
Evans tweeted a similar chart last night, noting: “Facebook: higher mobile engagement, better products, higher ARPU.” (Average revenue per user.)
In other words: Facebook is actually making it happen.