Facebook shares fell 10% in after-hours trading as it struggled to meet investors’ expectations in its first earnings report as a public company. 

Shares in Facebook hit an all time low of $23.84 – down from the $38 issue price in May’s initial public offering (IPO).  

The company reported a second-quarter loss of $157m, mainly due to costs related to the IPO. 

Mobile use is eating into ad revenue. Facebook has more paid ad formats on the desktop version of the site. However, more users are accessing the site smartphones and tablets so they are viewing fewer ads. 

During its first earnings conference call as a public company chief financial officer David Ebersman confirmed this decline: “ad impressions continued the recent trend of growing more slowly than users as more of our usage is on mobile devices”.

Facebook plans to concentrate on mobile services. At the same conference call founder Mark Zuckerberg said: “Our goal is to help every person stay connected and every product they use be a great social experience.” 

Zuckerberg also confirmed that Facebook will be focusing mobile, platform and social ads. 

The DMA Social Media Council is conducting a survey to find out which social media platforms marketers think are best at achieving specific goals. Take part in the Social Media Scorecard survey. 

Posted by

Smarayda Christoforou