Facebook’s fourth-quarter revenue rose a whopping 63 per cent, the company said on Wednesday, citing sales of advertising for mobile devices as a reason for the increase.

Revenue in the fourth quarter rose to $2.585 billion, compared with $1.585 billion in the same period the year before.

Net income was $523 million compared with $64 million in the fourth quarter 2012 — more than a seven-fold increase.

Facebook, the world’s largest social networking company, said revenue from mobile ads represented 53 per cent of its total advertising revenue in the October-December period. That’s up from 49 per cent in the third quarter.

Revenue at the company founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 was higher than analysts predicted, and its stock price reflected the positive results, rising 7 per cent in after-hours trading.

“It was a great end to the year for Facebook,” Zuckerberg said.

“We’re looking forward to our next decade and to helping connect the rest of the world.” Facebook now has 1.23 billion monthly users and 76 per cent of them access the service on a smartphone or tablet.

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