In Facebook's first results since its shambolic stock market debut in May, the social networking site has reported a net loss of $157m (£100m) for the quarter ended 30 June 2012. This compares to a net income of $240m for the same period last year.
But it wasn't all bad news: revenue increased by 32 per cent to $1.18bn (2011: $895m), beating market forecasts. Revenue from advertising was $992m, while payments and other fees brought in $192m.
Second-quarter costs and expenses were $1.93bn, a year-on-year increase of 295 per cent, driven primarily by share-based compensation expenses. Capital expenditures were $413m, an annual increase of 213 per cent.
During the quarter, the company announced the proposed acquisition of the photo-sharing app Instagram and entered into an agreement with Yahoo! to settle all pending patent claims. Meanwhile, the company’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg, joined the Facebook board.
Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, said:
Our goal is to help every person stay connected and every product they use be a great social experience. That’s why we're so focused on investing in our priorities of mobile, platform and social ads to help people have these experiences with their friends.