Facebook net income falls 12% to $205 million in Jan-Mar

Social networking giant Facebook has reported 12 per cent fall in net income to USD 205 million in the January-March quarter of the year, because of higher expenses on research and promotion even as it witnessed growth in revenues.

The results have come just few weeks ahead of its expected initial public offering.

Facebook has posted a net income of $205 million in the January-March quarter of 2012 compared to $233 million in the year-ago period, the company said in a regulatory filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The social networking site attributed decline in quarterly profit mainly due to rise in expenses on research, marketing and promotional works.

Facebook's revenue climbed to $1.05 billion in the three months ended March 31, 2012 from $731 million in the year-ago period.

The company said it has 901 million monthly active users as of March 31, an increase of 33 per cent from the year-ago period.

The number of people using its mobile applications each month stood at 488 million at
the end of the quarter.

Facebook said users in Brazil, India and the US were important sources of growth both on its' website and on mobile devices.

"We had 45 million MAUs in Brazil as of March 31, 2012, an increase of 180 per cent from the same period in the prior year, and we had 51 million MAUs in India, an increase of 107

per cent from the same period in the prior year," it said.

"Additionally, we had 169 million MAUs in the US as of March 31, 2012, an increase of 15 per cent from the same period in the prior year," it added.

Facebook said it would 'continue to focus on growing user base across all geographies, including relatively less-penetrated, large markets such as Brazil, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, and South Korea.'

"We intend to grow our user base by continuing our marketing and user acquisition efforts and enhancing our products, including mobile apps, in order to make Facebook more accessible and useful," the company said.

Facebook said its expenses has nearly doubled to $677 million during the quarter under review from the year-ago period.

The company's costs on research and development work has surged to $153 million from $57 million year-earlier.

In addition, it has incurred $159 million on sales and marketing during the three months to March, 2012 compared to $68 million in the year-ago period.

In February, Facebook, had filed for an initial public offering which could raise at least $10 billion and could value the company between $75 billion and $100 billion.