Facebook revenues may be up 61% but they’re still 13x lower than Apple’s

Now, I’m sure there are few of us who would turn our noses up at making $2.91bn in total revenue in just three months, as Facebook just did in its second quarter of this year (Q2 2014).

That $2.61bn is a 61% increase on the same quarter last year, while Facebook’s $791m profit in Q2 2014 is up 138% on the same period in 2013.

But it’s interesting to compare Facebook’s results with Apple’s Q3 results, which came out yesterday.

The two tech titans are often bundled into the same breath when talking about the world’s biggest tech companies and the mega-bucks they make.

Yet Apple’s billions make Facebook look like small fry.

Check out the comparison:

Of course, the figures above don’t tell the whole story.

Because we also need to consider how much global reach these two uber-companies have, and how many people’s lives they play some part in.

So – Facebook boasts an incredible 829 million daily active users in its latest results.

That shoots up to 1.32 billion when you include those who use Facebook at least once a month.

Apple, meanwhile, announced that it had sold a total of 500 million iPhones in late March this year.

Sure, that’s not a like-for-like comparison, and that doesn’t account for all the other devices Apple has out there.

But mobile is a key area for both these players, so it’s interesting that Facebook is significantly ahead of Apple in terms of customer/user numbers.

Facebook’s mobile daily active user number now stands at 654 million. If you think about how many of the 500 million iPhones sold will no longer be in use, it becomes clearer that Facebook is dominating this space.

Which means that, despite having much lower revenues than Apple, it might well have the potential to edge ahead in the near future as the global goliaths go head-to-head in what is increasingly becoming the most prized asset of all: your personal data.

What do you think? Let me know @sophiehobson and in comments below

 

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