It’s all rosy at Facebook, except when it comes to payments. Payments revenue has all but stalled at Facebook, and there is no sign that revenue stream will begin growing again at the social media company. In fact, Facebook’s payments business is contracting in some respects. Facebook generated $218 million of payments revenue last quarter, an increase of just 0.47% over the previous quarter, according to the company. By comparison, advertising revenue at Facebook increased 12.4% last quarter. Facebook officials emphasized the company’s year-over-year increase in payments revenue during its quarterly earnings call, Here’s what David Ebersman, chief financial officer of Facebook, said yesterday: Total payments and other fees revenue was up 24% year-over-year to $218 million and roughly flat sequentially. Payments revenue from games was up 18% from last year. So we believe 12% represents the best apples-to-apples comparisons adjusting for accounting items such as the change in revenue recognition timing from late last year. That might be true, but when compared to advertising, payment revenue is nothing short of a laggard. To wit, YOY advertising revenue at Facebook increased 66% last quarter. Payments revenue performance is also disconnected from Facebook’s other performance metrics, such as active users per day [...]
↧