Advertisements in the Facebook smartphone app might be annoying, but they keep pushing the social network to new heights.
Facebook had 1.4 billion monthly active users during the quarter, up 13% from a year ago. Nearly 1.2 billion of those people were using mobile devices to access the social network, up 26% over last year.
Mobile advertising made up 69% of the company’s overall ad sales. Last year, mobile ads made up just over half of Facebook’s advertising revenue.
That growing mobile revenue helped Facebook’s overall sales rise 49% to $3.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014.
“We got a lot done in 2014,” said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “Our community continues to grow and we’re making progress towards connecting the world.”
But Facebook’s costs exploded last quarter, as its growing base of users posted, shared, uploaded and watched more than ever on the company’s network.
To support all that activity, Facebook spent a whopping $2.7 billion on storage, IT equipment and other tech-related items. That’s up 87% from a year earlier.
Still, Facebook’s huge sales growth helped profit soar 34% to $701 million last quarter.
Shares of Facebook fell 2% after hours.