Facebook thrives in Q1 as profit triples on mobile ads

Facebook seems to have figured out the Smartphone market, hogging mobile ads to achieve triple profits.

Facebook said Wednesday that mobile ads were responsible for 59% of the social networking giant’s advertising revenue in the first quarter of 2014, compared with 30% a year ago.

All that makes good news for Facebook, as most users of the internet are migrating to  mobile devices  from desktops and notebooks.

In January, a report by comScore showed more Americans had used smartphone and tablet apps more than PC’s to access the internet for the first time ever. This marks a busy year for Facebook as it is trying to shift its focus to mobile.

Facebook bought mobile messaging service WhatsApp for a massive $19 billion back in February.

Facebook reported $2.5 billion in first quarter revenue, up 72% from the year ago.

Profit came in at $642 million, around triple what it had recorded in the same quarter in 2013. Both revenue and profit topped estimates, sending shares of Facebook up more than 4% in premarket trade when the report was first released.

The company’s share was last up 0.52% at $61.68 per share.

Together with the earnings report, Facebook announced that chief financial officer David Ebersman will leave on June 1, and will be replaced by David Wehner, Facebook’s vice president for corporate finance and business planning.