New York: Facebook shares dropped as much as 7 per cent after-hours on Wednesday after executives warned that revenue growth would slow next year as its ad load growth tapers off.
The comments were made during the company's third quarter earnings call, in which executives also said that in 2017 Facebook would see expenses go up significantly as part of an investment year focused on hiring.
For the quarter, mobile advertising drove a 56 per cent increase in revenue for Facebook during the third quarter.
The company brought in $7.01 billion in quarterly revenue, besting Wall Street's $6.9 billion estimate. It made $2.4 billion during the quarter, up from $896 million during the same period last year.
The social network now has 1.18 billion daily active users, up 17 per cent year-over-year, and 1.79 billion monthly active users. Its mobile audience also continues to grow, with mobile daily active users up 22 per cent to 1.09 billion at the end of the quarter.
Mobile advertising made up 84 per cent of all Facebook revenue for the quarter.
Video was a focus of the company's earnings call on Wednesday afternoon. CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussed the new, camera-first experience that Facebook is currently testing in Ireland, noting that "soon a camera will be the main interface through which we share."
To that effect, Instagram's new Stories feature now has 100 million daily active users, Facebook revealed.
Facebook is also upping its investment into virtual reality, which it got into with the purchase of Oculus, by putting an additional $250 million into the emerging space.
Facebook shares closed the day down nearly 2 per cent to $127.26.