This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on January 29, 2016.

SAN FRANCISCO/BENGALURU: Facebook Inc smashed investors’ expectations with a 52% jump in quarterly revenue as it sold more ads targeted at a fast-growing number of mobile users, sending its shares sharply higher after hours.

The world’s biggest online social network bucked the trend of underwhelming tech results from Apple Inc and eBay Inc, in the face of economic uncertainty around the world and a strong US dollar depressing the value of overseas sales.

“It’s phenomenal at these [currency headwind] levels that they’re accelerating to that level of growth,” said Rob Sanderson, an analyst at MKM Partners.

Facebook’s dominance in mobile advertising helped to allay Wall Street concerns over its heavy investments in messaging service WhatsApp and virtual reality unit Oculus, which have not yet generated profits.

“I don’t think there’s going to be too many people crying for them to start monetising other properties anytime soon because the core business is so strong,” said Sanderson.

They were helped by chief financial officer David Wehner’s comment on a call with analysts that he expected operating expenses to increase by 30% to 40% over the course of the year, a slower clip than last year.

Total revenue rose to US$5.84 billion (RM24.6 billion) from US$3.85 billion a year earlier, with ad revenue increasing 56.8% to US$5.64 billion in the holiday shopping period, when spending on advertising typically spikes.

Apart from focusing on mobile, Facebook has been ramping up spending on what it calls “big bets,” including virtual reality, artificial intelligence and drones to connect the remotest parts of the world to the Internet.

Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, who returned from two months of paternity leave on Monday, has said virtual reality represents the next major computing platform.

In January, Facebook began taking orders for a consumer version of the Oculus Rift, a head-mounted virtual reality unit.

The company has also begun monetising some of its other units, such as photo-sharing app Instagram, which surpassed 400 million users last year and began selling ads in September. — Reuters