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Facebook's Entire Business Relies on People Using It on Their Phones

Facebook is rolling in the money, thanks to users who surf the social network from their smartphones.
Image: People pose with laptops in front of projection of Facebook logo in this picture illustration taken in Zenica
People are silhouetted in front of a screen projected with a Facebook logo.Dado Ruvic / Reuters

Facebook reported $8.81 billion in revenue during its quarterly earnings on Wednesday, $8.63 billion of which was due to advertising.

But, importantly, 84 percent of that ad revenue was thanks to mobile.

"Marketers are increasingly seeing mobile and the opportunity in it, especially mobile video," Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said on an earnings call.

The company added due to the vast majority of its users accessing it on mobile, it would no longer break out mobile versus desktop user numbers in future quarters.

Facebook's mobile ad dominance may only increase. It got rid of desktop advertising platform FBX in May 2016 in order to focus on mobile advertising. The company is also looking to add advertising in its messaging services What's App and Facebook Messenger. It's recently added advertising in Instagram Stories, and has detailed plans to add ads in between livestreamed content.

The company beat analyst expectations during its last quarter. It was expected to report $8.51 billion in revenue, per a Thompson Reuters consensus estimate. Earns-per-share came in at $1.41, compared to the estimate of $1.31.