More and more mobile device users are accessing Facebook (FB) from smartphones and tablets, and that’s a mixed blessing for the social media giant. The company says that more than half a billion people accessed Facebook from a mobile device in June, and that almost 19% of those relied exclusively on smartphones or tablets to connect with friends through the site. That means those people never saw the ads Facebook serves up to personal computer users, who are of course looking at larger screens with more room for advertising.
Facebook’s management discussed the growth in mobile users in the newly public company’s most recent 10-Q filing. The report does not say how many of Facebook’s 543 million monthly active users were using tablets versus smartphones. As a company that relies heavily on advertising revenue, Facebook should benefit from the larger screen sizes offered by tablets, but so far the company does not have separate mobile apps for tablets and smartphones. And since many tablets are WiFi-only, it’s a good bet that the millions of people uploading photos and comments on the fly are using smartphones.
Facebook says that it had 955 million monthly active users in June, up 29% from June of 2011. Meanwhile mobile monthly active users increased 67% from a year ago. Average revenue per user (ARPU) was $1.28 in the second quarter, up just 2% from the year-ago quarter. Facebook says the growth rate was suppressed by the addition of millions of users in developing countries who do not generate much revenue.
The company says that an average of 552 million people used Facebook each day in June, up 5% from March. Facebook says that growth was due to increased mobile usage, and that the daily number of Americans and Europeans accessing the site from personal computers went down.
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