Mark Zuckerberg is about to reach another level of rich

WE’D BE laughing, too. It began in a university dorm room, but Facebook’s stock value is about to overtake one of the world’s most precious resources.

FACEBOOK is set to be worth more than ExxonMobil — and Mark Zuckerberg will be richer than the Koch brothers.

The social-networking giant’s stock soared Wednesday after its second-quarter revenue rose 59.2 per cent, to $8.5 billion ($US6.4 billion), crushing the consensus estimate of $US6 billion, as its computer-loving, smartphone-addicted user base continues to carpet ever-wider sections of the globe.

Profits nearly tripled to $US2.06 billion, or 97 cents a share — blowing past analyst forecasts of 82 cents, as well as the year-ago profit of 50 cents.

The surprisingly strong results — the 13th quarterly beat in a row for Facebook — sent the Silicon Valley giant’s shares soaring 6 per cent in aftermarket trades, to around $US130, the New York Post reports.

As such, Facebook’s market capitalisation is poised to hit $US375 billion on Thursday, on par with that of oil behemoth ExxonMobil, whose market cap stood at $US376 billion at Wednesday’s close.

Facebook’s stock surge also sent the net worth of Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s 32-year-old founder and chief executive, soaring to $US56.4 billion — past that of either Charles or David Koch, oil barons who are worth $US54.8 billion each, according to Bloomberg.

Advertisers are shelling out ever-bigger bucks to place ads, video and other stuff on Facebook’s fast-growing site and its Instagram mobile app, whose photo-obsessed monthly users now number 500 million.

“We’re particularly pleased with our progress in video as we move toward a world where video is at the heart of all our services,” Zuckerberg said in a statement.

The ranks of Facebook’s overall monthly active users swelled to 1.71 billion worldwide, with 1.13 billion — or two-thirds of total users — logging in at least once a day.

What’s more, Facebook’s Messenger and WhatsApp mobile apps now boast more than 1 billion monthly active users each.

“Concerns over user engagement and other social competitors are largely overblown,” Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Robert W Baird, said in a note to clients following the afternoon release of the blowout results.

“Few companies share Facebook’s combination of scale, strong technology orientation, and platform breadth/diversity,” Mr Baird said.

That includes younger rivals like Snapchat — the disappearing-photo sharing app, which some industry watchers have viewed as a threat to Facebook’s and Instagram’s teen user bases.

Twitter, meanwhile, disclosed this week that its monthly user base remained relatively stagnant at 313 million active users, and that its revenue is slowing amid “increased competition.”

Twitter didn’t mention Facebook by name, but the message was clear.

Particularly impressive in Facebook’s results were mobile ads, which generated 84 per cent of its advertising revenue.

This article first appeared at the New York Post and is reproduced with permission.

Originally published as Mark Zuckerberg is about to reach another level of rich