Facebook shares flutter as firm reports user growth slowing

Facebook's shares dropped 10 percent on the news that it is planning to spend more on roughly the same number of users next year.

However, after hours trading pulled the social media monster's price back up to around $80 per share following the third-quarter results announcements.

CFO Dave Wehner said the company was planning to hugely increase its expenses in 2015 - by as much as 75 percent - in order to invest in and expand recent acquisitions such as WhatsApp and Oculus.

"We're investing where we think there’s a great opportunity for long-term growth," Wehner noted. "So we're investing in the people." Note he said 'people' not products because WhatsApp and Oculus are still some way from profitability.

Earlier this year, Facebook paid $22bn for WhatsApp. It revealed today that the company had lost $232.5m in the first half of the year, compared to $58.8m loss in the first six months of 2013.

The number of Facebook's active monthly users grew by 2.3 per cent, slower than the last quarter average of 3.1 per cent. The company has 864 million daily active users; the vast majority of whom use their phones to interact with the social media giant.

"This has been a good quarter with strong results," said the Behooded One, fresh from his local triumph in China. "We continue to focus on serving our community well and continue to invest in connecting the world over the next decade."

Facebook expects healthy revenue growth of 40-47 per cent, but that compares poorly to the 59 per cent from this quarter. It received $3.2bn in revenue for Q3, compared to just over $2bn this time last year. That figure was pretty much in line with expectations.

The firm has been doing better with its mobile advertising efforts - something that dragged down its share price earlier in the year. Mobile ads are now 66 percent of Facebook's advertising revenue, up from 49 percent a year ago. In that respect, Facebook is outshining all its rivals. ®