Among news of Facebook’s Oculus acquisition, here’s an interesting bit that might’ve gotten lost: Facebook’s mobile platform now serves over 1 billion users. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared the news in a press call yesterday and also commented on Instagram’s growth.
Facebook mobile has been growing at a healthy pace; around this time last year the company reported 751 million monthly mobile users, a 54% gain on the previous year. The Facebook app has become so popular that people now spend 20% of their time with mobile using Facebook, according to Re/code. That’s impressive considering the thousands of mobile apps people can spend time with on their phones.
Instagram, too, has been growing fast. Zuckerberg reported that the app has reached 200 million users, up from 150 million in September 2013 and 30 million when it was first acquired by Facebook in April 2012.
Facebook‘s success in mobile provides more than enough explanation for its recent obsession with mobile ads, particularly by serving auto-play video ads in the Facebook News Feed. The advertising money goes where the people go, after all!
